A collection of essays and tracts in theology, from various authors,with biographical and critical notices

COLLECTION

OF

ESSAYS AND TRACTS

IN

THEOLOGY,

FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS,

WITH

BIOGRAPHICAL AISD CRITICAL NOTICES.

BY JARED SPARKS.

^fcwlYO

BOSTON,
PUBLISHED BY OLIVER EVERETT, 13 CORNHILL.

1824.

Press oi tb8 North 'American Review.

CONTENTS

THE THIRD VOLUME.

ROBERT ROBINSON.

Page.

Biographical notice - 3

On uniformity in religion 27
On the right of private judgment - 37
On the nature and objects cf baptism, as re-
garding church fellcw sin? - 49
Reflections on christian lI^ervt/cjvil ESTAB-
lishments in religion, and toleration . - 93
Hints concerning the ussthut-on an->, disci-
pline OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH - - 137

The spirit of god the guide of good men - 145

The christian religion easy to be understood 165

The jews ----- 176

VI CONTENTS.

THOMAS COGAN.

Biographical notice - 185

Remarks on the writings op dr cogan - 197

LETTERS TO WILBERFORCE ON THE DOCTRINE

OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY - - - .235

LETTER I.

Confidence with which the Calvinistic Tenet of De-
pravity is usually asserted. False Modes of
Reasoning by which it is supported. Leads to
Skepticism. Sanctions absurd and impossible
Doctrines. To be believed only by rejecting the
Dictates of the Understanding. Harmony be-
tween, Reason, and. Scripture

LETTER II.

239

Calvinistic Doctrine, of 'Qrjgiwl Sin, or Total De-
pravityy'stfiiefh . Not .caistitent with Scripture.
No evidence in the Sacred Writings, that Adam
was created with a perfect Nature, or that the
sinful Propensities of his Posterity were derived
from him 272

CONTENTS. VII

LETTER III.

Texts of Scripture examined. The Notion of a
Total, Hereditary Depravity confuted by Obser-
vation and Experience. Stronger Proofs, that
Men are upright and perfect, than that they are
totally depraved - - - - - 287

LETTER IV.

Doctrine of Original Depravity can be reconciled
neither with the Physical, nor Metaphysical
Structure of Man. At variance with other Doc-
trines of the Calvinistic Scheme - - 307

LETTER V.

The Notion, that Men are punished for Sin inherit-
ed from Adam, is extravagant, irrational, and
unscriptural. Shown to be absurd, and the Ar-
guments in its Favour examined and confuted.
It is in Opposition to the Attributes of God - 325

LETTER VI.

The Scheme of Original Depravity not necessary
to account for Moral Imperfection in Man. Ar-
guments against the Doctrine drawn from its
pernicious Consequences - 355

SELECTION

FROM

ROBERT ROBINSON'S

WOEKS.

r

ROBERT ROBINSON.

Among the uses of biography, none is more valua-
ble, than that which inspires good purposes, awakens
energy, and incites to exertion. The events of a
person's life, who has risen to eminence by the force
of his own genius and enterprise, are always interest-
ing, because they are rare ; they are always instruc-
tive, because they serve as a light and a guide to
others, whose early fortunes may be equally unpro-
pitious.

That one should go out triumphantly on the tide
of life, who is blessed with all the advantages of fam-
ily, wealth, powerful friends, facilities of education,
and incitements to employ them, is no cause of won-
der. It would, indeed, be strange if it were other-
wise. But when the sons of obscurity and indigence
break from the cloud which surrounds, and the weight
which oppresses them ; when they enter on the
world's wide ocean, without a parent's voice to coun-
sel, or a parent's hand to protect ; when each return-
ing day brings them into a new conflict with want
and anxiety ; when the allurements of vice besiege
them on the one side, and the spectres of despond.en-

4 ROBINSON.

cy assault them on the other, without shaking their
firmness, or turning them from the steady purpose of
uprightness and perseverance ; and when, in defi-
ance of every other obstacle, they ascend to a proud
station among the wise, the learned, and the good ;
it is then that they may justly claim the respect and
admiration of their fellow-men, and call on them to
behold an example worthy to be praised and emu-
lated. Among the few, who are to be revered for
self-acquired eminence, the subject of the present
memoir stands in an honourable place.

Robert Robinson was born at SwafFham, county
of Norfolk, on the eighth of October, 1735. His
father was a native of Scotland, and an exciseman,
of whom little needs be said, except that his humble
sphere in life received no dignity from his under-
standing, and no brightness from his virtues. Mary
Wilkin, the mother of Robert Robinson, was descend-
ed from a respectable family, and to the advantages
of a good education she added the charms of a beau-
tiful person, an amiable temper, and gentleness of
manners. She was the daughter of a second mar-
riage, and, as unnatural as it may seem, the affections
of her father were centred in the children of his wife
by a former husband. Mary was doomed to experi-
ence from him less of the tenderness of a parent, than
of the austerity and unfeelingness of a severe master.
He delighted to thwart her purposes ; and on several
occasions, through mere caprice, he rejected the

ROBINSON. O

overtures of worthy and respectable persons, who so-
licited his daughter's hand.

Disheartened by the severity of her father's treat-
ment, and impatient to escape from it, she imprudent-
ly resolved on marrying without his consent. This
step was a prelude to untried evils. She united her-
self to a man in all respects unworthy of her, pos-
sessing neither the qualifications for making her hap-
py, nor the disposition to soften and conciliate her
father.

They had three children, of whom Robert was the
youngest. The elder son was apprenticed to a
painter, and the daughter to a mantuamaker. Robert
was put to school when six years old, and soon drew
the attention of his teacher, as exhibiting more than
usual promise. In the mean time, his father remov-
ed from Swaffham, and settled at Scaring. He
soon after died, and left the destitute mother to pro-
vide for herself, and three children. At Scaring was
a grammar school, where Lord Thurlow, and some
other distinguished persons, received the rudiments of
their education. Desirous of encouraging her son's
predilection for learning, Mrs Robinson made an ef-
fort to maintain him at this school, but her resources
proved inadequate to the expense. So favourable
an impression had he made, however, on his teacher,
the Rev. Joseph Brett, and so much did this gentle-
man respect the motives and virtues of the mother.
1*

U ROBINSON.

that he kindly offered to instruct his pupil without
compensation.

On these terms he continued at school till he was
fourteen years old, studied the French and Latin, and
made rapid proficiency in most of the branches com-
monly pursued at such institutions. The time had now
come when it was necessary to decide on his future
destination. So many discouragements were in the
wTay of his being a scholar, and so many difficulties
to be encountered, that his mother resigned this hope,
which she had suffered to rise and brighten for a
time, and was only concerned to place him beyond
the reach of want by providing for him an honest
calling. His benevolent instructer, Mr Brett, made
interest to procure a situation suited to his capacity
and inclination, but without success. He was finally
bound as an apprentice to a hairdresser in London.

To this new employment he at first devoted him-
self with commendable industry, received the appro-
bation of his master, and was able to boast of a due
proficiency in the mysteries of his trade. But his
thoughts were not to be chained, nor could nature be
forced. His mind was too active to rest in vacuity,
and his love of books too strong to be conquered by
the routine of a barber's shop. It was his custom to
rise at four in the morning, and from that hour till
called to his master's service, he was busy in read-
ing such books as he could collect from the cheap
stalls or borrow from his friends.

ROBINSON. 7

His thoughts early took a religious bias, and after
going to London a constant attendance on public
worship was among his greatest pleasures. Gill,
Guise, Romaine, and Whitfield were his favourite
preachers. His diary at this time indicates no small
degree of religious enthusiasm, and proves him to
have gradually attached himself to the methodists.
Whitfield, in short, was his adviser and friend, to
whom he applied in all cases of spiritual difficulty,
and with whom he familiarly corresponded. On one oc-
casion Whitfield read to his congregation at the Taber-
nacle two of Robinson's letters, while the writer was
present. Encouraged by the favourable opinion of
so distinguished a man, and moved by the advice of
his friends, it is not a matter of surprise that he
should begin to think himself destined to walk in a
broader sphere, than the one on which he was en-
tered.

So great, indeed, was the esteem and respect
which he gained by his genius and good character,
that his master was not reluctant to comply with the
general voice, and give up his indentures. At the age
of nineteen he commenced preaching among the
methodists. His youth, his amiable manners, his
vivacity and native eloquence drew around him many
hearers, and gave a charm to his preaching, which
could not fail to please. His voice was clear and
melodious, his elocution easy and distinct, his lan-
guage flowing, and all his external accomplishments

8 ROBINSON.

engaging. These advantages, heightened by a liberal
degree of youthful enthusiasm, crowned his first
efforts with success, and animated his future exer-
tions. He spared no pains to cultivate the powers
which nature had bestowed on him, and frequently
declaimed by the hour in private, that he might ac-
quire the habit of a ready delivery, and a free use of
language. In this practice the foundation was laid
of his subsequent eminence as a public speaker. He
thought no time mispent, which prepared him for
winning the ear and gaining the hearts of his audi-
ence, and thus more effectually discharging the du-
ties of his sacred office.

Among the methodists Mr Robinson preached
chiefly in Norwich, and different parts of Norfolk
and Cambridgeshire. While thus employed he re-
sisted a temptation, which deserves to be recorded as
a proof of his early integrity and strength of principle.
He had been educated in the established church, and
had not joined himself to the dissenters without ex-
amining the causes and nature of their dissent. When
his talents and virtues had gained him a name in the
world, some of his relations, who seem to have for-
gotten him before, made an attempt to bring him back
to the episcopal church. The following incident is
mentioned by Dr Rees, the learned editor of the
Cyclopaedia, in his sermon preached on the occasion
of Mr Rob nson's death. " A rich relation, who
had promised to provide liberally for him, and who

ROBINSON. 9

had bequeathed him a considerable sum in his will,
threatened to deprive him of every advantage which
he had been encouraged to expect, unless he quitted
his connexion with the dissenters ; but the rights of
conscience, and the approbation of God were superior,
in his regard, to every worldly consideration ; he pre-
servi d his integrity, steadily maintained his princi-
ples, and persevered in his connexion with the dis-
senters, but forfeited the favour of his relation, and
every advantage, which, living or dying, he had in his
power to bestow."* This conduct was consistent
with his character through life. A high-minded in-
dependence, conscientious regard for truth and lib-
erty, and unyielding adherence to his religious im-
pressions, were among the shining virtues, which
never forsook him.

The causes leading to his separation from the
methodists are not distinctly known, but he had not
preached with them more than two years, when, at
the head of a few persons associated for the purpose,
he formed an independent society in Norwich. At
this time he was a Calvinist, and constructed the con-
fession of faith for his new society on Calvinistic prin-
ciples. He adopted the rules and discipline com-
mon to othe independent churches, and administered
the ordinances after the same manner.

*■ Dr Rees' Sermon en the Death of Mr Robert Robinson,
p. 59.

10 ROBINSON.

In the year 1759, not long after this society was
organized, Mr Robinson was invited to take charge
of a Baptist congregation at Cambridge. He was
already convinced, that adults only were the proper
subjects of baptism, and he had himself been baptized
by immersion. The Cambridge society was small,
and the pecuniary circumstances of its members such,
as to afford him no more than a very scanty support.
When he commenced preaching in Cambridge he
was twenty-three years of age, and two years after-
wards he was ordained according to the usual mode
of the dissenters. He had been married a little
before to a young lady of Norwich.

Mr Robinson's own account of his settlement,
written at a later period of his life, will show his
prospects to have been not the most flattering. In
reference to this subject he observes ; " The settle-
ment of Robinson seems rather a romantic, than
rational undertaking, for this pastor was to be main-
tained. He had not received above ten guineas from
his own family for some years ; he had no future
prospect of receiving any j his grandfather had cut
him off with a legacy of half a guinea. He had
received only a hundred pounds with his wife, and
this he had diminished among the methodists. He
had never inquired what his congregation would allow
him, nor had any body proposed any thing. They
had paid him for the first half-year, three pounds
twelve shillings and five pence ; they had increased

ROBINSON. 11

since, but not enough to maintain him frugally ; there
was no prospect of so poor a people supplying him
long, especially should his family increase, which it
was likely to do. Besides, the congregation, through
the libertinism of many of its former members, had
acquired a bad character. These would have been
insurmountable difficulties to an older and wiser man ;
but he was a boy, and the love of his flock was a
million to him. His settlement, therefore, on this
article, should be no precedent for future settle-
ments."

The situation here described could have few
charms for a man who had set his heart on the things
of this world, or whose fancy was quickened by the
kindling visions of power and fame. But Robinson
was not such a man. He loved his profession, and
every motive of self-aggrandizement was absorbed in
the deeper and purer desire of witnessing the growth
of piety, good order, and happiness among his peo-
ple. His congregation grew larger, and the time
came when his annual income was increased to more
than ninety pounds. At first he lived at Fulbourn,
five miles from the place of his sabbath duties, where
he contracted an acquaintance with Mr Graves, a
gentleman of property and benevolence, from whom
he received many substantial tokens of friendship.

He next removed to Hauxton, about the same dis-
tance from Cambridge, where he resided for several
years, the tenant of an humble cottage, devoted

12 ROBIiNSON.

assiduously to his professional labours, and providing
for the support of a numerous family, and an aged
mother. His disinterested ardour, his kindness to the
poor, his love of doing good, and his unwearied ac-
tivity in making himself useful, attracted to him the
notice of all the respectable part of the community,
and quickened the generosity of some worthy and
opulent persons. On the sabbath he often preached
three times, and during the week several times in the
neighbouring villages. He was intimate with all the
surrounding clergy among the dissenters, and had for
his early companions Roland Hill and Charles de
Coetlogon. His congregation increased so much,
that a more commodious place of worship was found
necessary, and the pastor was highly gratified with the
promptness and unanimity with which it was erected.
In the midst of his professional labours he was a
diligent student in theology and literature. Free
access to the libraries of the University of Cam-
bridge, and conversation with the learned men resid-
ing there, enabled him to pursue his studies with
advantage. He was an admirer of Saurin, and in
1770 translated and published two of his sermons.
These were sent out as specimens, which, if approv-
ed, he promised should be the forerunners of others.
The success of his project was quite equal to his ex-
pectation, and he afterwards translated at different
times five volumes of sermons selected from Saurin.
These have gone through several editions, and to-

ROBINSON.

13

gether with a sixth volume by Hunter, and a seventh
by SutclifFe, they constitute the works of . Saurin,
as they now appear in the English dress.

While residing in the cottage at Hauxton he also
published his Arcana, or the Principles of the late
Petitioners to Parliament for Relief in Matter of
Subscription, in eight Letters to a Friend. These
letters were adapted to the times, and attracted a
lively attention. The dissenters were making all pos-
sible exertions to have the law repealed, which re-
quired from them subscription to the articles. Pres-
byterians and Baptists, orthodox and heterodox,
united their forces to abolish a law, which operated
with equal severity on them all, and which was in
itself so flagrant an encroachment on justice, liberty,
the rights of conscience, and the claims of humanity.
All rallied under the same banner, and cried out with
one voice against the oppression which weighed them
down, till, after many unsuccessful struggles, their'
voice was heard, their petitions heeded, and dissent-
ing ministers and schoolmasters were allowed the
privilege of prosecuting their peaceful avocations
without violating their conscience by subscribing the
Thirty-nine Articles, or subjecting themselves to a civil
penalty by resisting so unholy a requisition. During
the struggle for christian freedom the above letters
were written. Clothed in a language always sprightly,
sometimes adorned with glowing imagery, sometimes
rising with the majesty of argument, and at others
2

14 ROBINSON.

pungent with satire, they were well calculated for
popular effect. They enter largely into the chief
points of the controversy, and bating some defects of
style, and perhaps occasional faults of sentiment, it
will be rare to find a more ingenious vindication of
the rights and privileges of christian liberty.

Robinson left Hauxton in 1773, and settled at
Chesterton within two miles of Cambridge. This
brought him nearer to the centre of his parochial
charge, and the facilities for his literary pursuits were
multiplied by his proximity to the university. But
his income was not yet adequate to support a family
of nine children, and he was compelled to look
around him for other sources of emolument. He
turned his attention to agriculture. By rigid econo-
my, personal inspection of his affairs, judicious invest-
ments, and a spirit of enterprise that never slumber-
ed, he found himself in a few years a thriving farmer,
and had the joy to feel, that by the blessing of Pro-
vidence his numerous family was beyond the grasp of
want, and the caprice of fortune. Mr Dyer thus
speaks of his character as a farmer and economist.
" It would be no less agreeable than instructive to
survey his rural economy, and domestic arrange-
ments in his new situation ; the versatility of his
genius was uncommon ; and whether he was making
a bargain, repairing a house, stocking a farm, giving
directions to workmen, or assisting their labours,
he was the same invariable man, displaying no less

ROBINSON. 15

vigour in the execution of his plans, than ingenuity in
their contrivance. The readiness with which he pass-
ed from literary pursuits to rural occupations, from
rural occupations to domestic engagements, from
domestic engagements to the forming of plans for dis-
senting ministers, to the settling of churches, to the
solving of cases of conscience, to the removing of the
difficulties of ignorant, or softening the asperities of
quarrelsome brethren, was surprising."* This is
the language of one who lived near him, for many-
years, and saw him often.

His professional duties were numerous. Those
pertaining to his own parish made but a part. He
was invited to attend ordinations in all the counties
around him ; his judgment was respected and his ad-
vice sought in cases of differences between churches ;
he was the counsellor of his parishioners in their tem-
poral as well as spiritual concerns ; the watchful
guardian of the unprotected and distressed ; the pa-
tron and benevolent friend of the poor. These calls
of duty did not relax his literary ardour. He went
on with his translations of Saurin, printed now and
then an occasional sermon of his own, and, at the re-
quest of two or three eminent gentlemen, wrote a

* Dyer's Life of Robinson, p. 98. This work was published in
1796, by a person well acquainted with Robinson ; but it is a
work singularly defective in arrangement, wanting in interest, and
barren of incidents, considering the opportunities and materials
with which the author was favoured.

16 ROBINSON,

treatise on affinities in marriage, which was highly
commended by jurists, as marked by an acute dis-
crimination and force of argument.

About the year 1776, Robinson published his Plea
for the Divinity of Christ. This topic was now
much agitated by reason of the late resignation of
Lindsey and Jebb for scruples of conscience con-
cerning the trinity. Robinson's Plea is drawn up
with ingenuity, in a popular style, and winning man-
ner. The arguments are less sound than specious ;
they take names for things, and rest on deductions
which go not beneath the surfaee of the Scriptures ;
in the balance with just criticism they lose their
weight and their substance. In the eyes of a certain
class of trinitarians they were masterly, because with
more than common skill they defended an old ground,
which it was thought difficult to maintain much lon-
ger, and which, in truth, has since been nearly aban-
doned. But even this popular treatise did not please
all parties. None withheld from the author the merit
of ingenuity ; some professed to admire the force and
accuracy of his reasoning ; while others were troubled
with a kind of indefinable suspicion, that he had
stopped short of the desired object. These latter
seem to have been alarmed, that the author wras so
sparing of the fire and rage of controversy. Robin-
son observes in writing to a friend, " The temper of
the Plea has procured me a deal of blame from the
good folks, who inhabit the torrid zone." These

ROBINSON. 17

zealous partisans were not satisfied, that lie should
win the day, unless he carried war with flames and
sword into the conquered enemy's camp.

Others, however, were of a different mind, and the
author received a profusion of complementary letters
from dignitaries in the established church. It was
whispered, and more than once proclaimed aloud, as
a thing to be lamented, that such a man should be a
dissenter, and waste his days in strolling with a be-
wildered flock beyond the enclosures of the true faith.
Gilded offers were made to him, if he would have
the conscience to slide out of his errors, go up from
the unseemly vale of poverty, and take his rest on
the commanding eminence of church preferment.
To these overtures he was deaf; from his principles
he could not be moved. When Dr Ogden said to
him, in trying to unsettle his purpose, " Do the dis-
senters know the worth of the man f" he replied,
" The man knows the worth of the dissenters." This
reply he verified by his warm devoted ness to their
interests through life. He received many letters ap-
proving his work from persons not belonging to the
episcopal church, especially his Baptist associates in
the ministry.

The Plea was answered by Lindsey, but Robinson
never replied ; nor did he write any more in defence
of the divinity of Christ, Whether influenced by
Lindsey's arguments, or whether his own examina-
tion of the subject had supplied him weaker grounds
2*

IB ROBINSON.

than he expected, or whether his mind received a
bias from any other quarter, it is certain that his senti-
ments about that time underwent a change. During
the latter years of his life he rejected the trinity, and
believed in. the subordinate nature of Christ.

The year after the Plea, Robinson published a
curious tract, entitled the History and Mistery of
Good Friday. In this pamphlet he traces back the
church holidays to their origin, and proves them for
the most part to have arisen out of heathen, or Jew-
ish practices, and to derive no authority from the
christian religion. It contains a severe, and some-
what rough philippic against the church of England,
which boasts of being reformed, and having cast off
the abuses of the Romish church, while yet many
are cherished, as unwarrantable and pernicious as
those severed from the old stock. This tract was
exceedingly popular, and ran speedily through seve-
ral editions.

But the work, which produced greater excitement
than any of our author's writings, was a Plan of Lec-
tures on the Principles of Nonconformity, publish-
ed in 1778. Within a moderate compass, it embra-
ces all the points of controversy between the estab-
lished church and the dissenters. Its manner is orig-
inal and striking. The time of its appearance was
favourable to its currency and interest, for the dis-
senters' bill was then pending in parliament. In the
House of Lords this Plan of Lectures was honourably

ROBINSON. 1£

mentioned by Lord Shelburne, and in the House of
Commons, Burke read passages from it, which he at-
tempted to turn to the disadvantage of the petitioners.
Fox repelled his attack, and foiled his attempt.
Many articles were written against it, and, among
others, strictures by Mr Burgess, prebendary of Win-
chester. Robinson replied to none, except the latter,
on which he bestowed a few remarks in his preface
to the fifth edition.

The next literary enterprise of Robinson was his
translation of Claude's Essay on the Composition of
a Sermon. To this essay the translator added a
life of the author, remarks on the history of preach-
ing, and a vast body of notes, making together two
thick volumes. The notes are written in the author's
peculiar manner, full of spirit and vivacity, and dis-
cover a prodigious extent of reading. Some of them
are valuable, many are highly entertaining, but they
seem to have been hastily thrown together, and col-
lected with too little discrimination. They occa-
sionally descend to trifling incidents, anecdotes, and
inapposite reflections, equally offensive to good taste,
and barren of instruction. But with all these defects,
Robinson's original edition is vastly preferable to
those coming after, in which the editors took the lib-
erty to abridge the notes, and add others of their
own. In the Rev. Charles Simeon's edition, the
notes are chiefly omitted, and their place supplied
by skeletons of his own sermons.

20 ROBINSON.

Mr Robinson's celebrated volume of Village Ser-
mons was published in 1786. We have already ob-
served, that it was his custom to preach in the neigh-
bouring villages, and frequently he tarried at a place
over night, and held religious service early in the
morning, before the labourers were gone to their
work. In summer these exercises were conducted
in the open air, and fully attended. The above \o\~
ume is composed of discourses delivered on these
occasions, and written out afterwards as dictated by
the author to an amanuensis. They had evidently
been prepared with care in his own mind, and they
contain a copiousness of language, a felicity of illus-
tration, and a readiness in quoting and applying ap-
propriate passages of scripture, rarely to be witnessed.
They were framed for a particular purpose, that of
enlightening and improving the less informed classes
of society ; and whoever reads them will not wonder,
that this purpose was attained, and that even those
for whom the things of the world had attractions
should resign for an hour the labour of gain, and lis-
ten with delight, to the persuasive accents of the
preacher. They maybe read with profit by all, who
love to contemplate the workings of a powerful mind
in recommending and enforcing the principles of a
holy religion, who are captivated with the inventions
of genius, the current of a natural eloquence, sound
words uttered in the spirit of christian philanthropy,
and sentiments breathing the influence of a rational,
fervent piety.

ROBINSON. 21

The last works in which our author was engaged
were the History of Baptism, and his Ecclesiastical
Researches. These were also his largest works, each
making a closely printed quarto volume. It had
long been a source of regret among the Baptists,
that no full and authentic history of their brethren
existed, and that their opinions, character, and pro-
gress had never been represented to the world in the
light they deserved. It was at length resolved by
some of the leading members of this denomination to
supply the deficiency, and appoint a suitable person
to write a copious and accurate history. The gen-
eral voice fixed on Robinson, and in 17S1 he was
invited by an authorized committee to undertake the
task. He complied with the request, and immediate-
ly set himself about the gigantic labour of wading
through the ecclesiastical records of ancient and mod-
ern times, appalled neither by the lumber of antiqui-
ty, nor the mountains of volumes, which have been
raised by the prolific industry of later ages.

That he might have a more ready access to scarce
books, it was a part of his plan to reside a few days
in every month in London. This design, however,
was soon given up as impracticable, for so much was
he sought after as a preacher, that he found his at-
tention perpetually diverted from his studies. Ap-
pointments were made by his friends for preaching
every day in the week, and so slowly did his history
advance in the midst of these interruptions that he.

22 ROBINSON.

was glad to escape from them to his farm, his family,
and his people, in the country. Here he was kindly
favoured with books from the university, and occa-
sionally from London, and here he completed the
History of Baptism.

This volume was chiefly printed before the author's
death, but not published till after that event. It con-
tains a vast fund of historical knowledge on the sub-
ject which he professes to treat, and indicates an
uncommonly deep and patient examination. The
Ecclesiastical Researches was a posthumous work,
and having been left in an unfinished state, is in
many respects imperfect. It contains some curious
facts relating to the history of the existence and pro-
gress of the principles of religious liberty and a ra-
tional faith during the early periods of Christianity,
and throughout the dark ages. It proves, that
these principles were never extinct in the gloom-
iest times, but that they were cherished in the
hearts of a few sincere, secluded worshippers, who
were either too remote from the public eye to be ob-
served, or too insignificant to draw down upon them-
selves the wrath of bigotry, or the rod of persecution.
In this respect the Ecclesiastical Researches supplies
a valuable link in the history of the church. But on
the whole, neither this nor the History of Baptism, is
equal to the author's other performances. While
preparing them it is evident his mind had lost much
of its former vigour, and was approaching that state

ROBINSON. 23

of inefficiency, which it was the melancholy lot of his
friends to contemplate in the latter days of his life.
However much the cause of truth may have gained
by these works, they have added little to the author's
fame.

During the last year of Robinson's life, his health
and his intellect gave symptoms of a rapid decline.
Of this he appeared to be fully aware, for to a friend,
who visited him not long before his death, he said,
"You are come to see only the shadow of Robert
Robinson." In the spring of 1790 he engaged to
preach the charity sermons for the benefit of the dis-
senting schools at Birmingham. He left home on
the second day of June in a languid frame of body
and mind, but so well did he bear the fatigue of the
journey, that he preached twice on the following sab-
bath. On Monday evening he was taken ill, and his
friends were alarmed ; but he gained strength the next
day. He retired to rest late in the evening, after
eating his supper with a good appetite, and by the
ease and cheerfulness of his conversation relieving
those around him from all apprehensions of immedi-
ate danger. But how frail are the foundations of hu-
man confidence, how deceitful the visions of human
hope ! When the morning came he was found life-
less in his bed. His features were tranquil, and his
spirit seemed to have deserted without a struggle its
mortal tenement. His body was interred at Birming-
ham, and on the sabbath following a discourse adapt-
ed to the occasion was preached by Dr Priestlev.

24 ROBINSON.

In the year 1807, Mr Flower published the Mis-
cellaneous Works of Robert Robinson, in four vol-
umes, to which he prefixed a brief memoir of the
author's life and writings. This edition comprises
all his works, except the History of Baptism, Eccle-
siastical Researches, Village Sermons, and Notes to
Claude. Among his best writings are the prefaces to
the several volumes of Saurin, especially the one on
Christian Liberty. The Life of Claude is well writ-
ten, but a dissertation on public preaching, prefixed
to the second volume of Claude's Essay, although it
contains some novel thoughts, and valuable facts, is
imperfect, and obviously put together from ill digest-
ed materials. This remark, indeed, applies to sev-
eral of his minor pieces, where a broader plan seems
to have been laid, than his leisure and opportunities
allowed him to fill up.

In selecting articles for the present publication, a
range has been taken through the whole of the au-
thor's works, nor has any scruple been felt in omitting
occasionally such paragraphs, as have no more than
a remote bearing on the main object of the piece
chosen. The author's desultory mode of writing,
and the local topics sometimes introduced, have ren-
dered this latitude necessary.

Among the numerous excellencies of Robinson's
style, there are some glaring faults. His imagination
is brilliant and active, but it rambles without license,
and luxuriates without moderation. He never wants

ROBINSON. 25

an apposite figure to illustrate any position, but his
choice is frequently ill-judged, and rests on low im-
ages unworthy of his subject. This may be account-
ed for, perhaps, from the circumstances of his edu-
cation, and from his invariable habit of bringing down
his language to the plain country people to whom he
preached. Another fault is want of method, and
looseness of reasoning. This fault is not perpetual, but
it occurs too often. Logic was not his strongest point ;
he loved not that his fancy should be clogged and
hampered by the trammels of the schools ; he chose
a path of his own, and in his passion for freedom was
impatient of the restraints which others have thought
so wholesome a branch of discipline, and so useful
in checking the exuberance of a prurient imagina-
tion, and maturing the decisions of a wayward judg-
ment. It needs hardly be added, that his taste par-
took of these defects ; it is sometimes bad, and often
not to be commended.

But these are small imperfections compared with
the predominant features of Robinson's mind. The
comprehensive views which he took of every subject,
the richness and abundance of his thoughts, the
power of intellect which weighs in his sentences, the
point of his expressions, the varied and playful al-
though erratic excursions of his imagination ; and,
above all, his sincerity and ardour, the justness of his
sentiments, his undisguised manner, his benevolence,
charity, and christian temper, his independence and
3

26 ROBINSON.

love of freedom, his unconquerable hostility to all
religious domination under whatever name or charac-
ter, his aversion to bigotry and narrowness, his ad-
herence to the simple truths of the Gospel ; these
give a charm and a value to his writings, by which
none can fail to be instructed and improved. Who-
ever would look for pleasure or benefit from the pro-
ductions of a writer with traits like these, will find his
labour well rewarded in perusing the works of Rob-
bert Robinson.

ON

UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION.

FROM THE ARCANA.

Legislation is doubtless a sacred thing ; it is a
divine imitation of the government of mankind, and
is deservedly assigned to the first in birth, property,
and skill ; but, the history of all nations will prove,
that in parliaments, as in paradise, the serpent has found
a way to corrupt and deprave. Ignorance or interest,
negligence or pride, have too often prevailed over the
generous principles which ought to influence these gods
of mankind ; and one age has been driven to repeal
the laws of a former ; so that perhaps legislation would
furnish a large history of the extravagancies of the
human mind, among which an Act of Uniformity would
appear one of the greatest. Britons boast of their laws,
and in general with great reason ; but some of them
blush for their country when they read a law entitled
an Act of Uniformity.

It would be foreign from the present purpose to
inquire the origin of this law ; it may be more proper

28 UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION.

to show that religious uniformity is an impossibility,
and that a law of this kind can neither be argued from
the light of nature, nor from the holy Scriptures.
The idea of uniformity is neither the idea of a philos-
opher, nor of a christian. The fabricature of this law
therefore by men who had a just right to both these
titles, implies a moment's absence.

Sound policy requires a legislature to preserve its
dignity ; but the dignity of a legislature is never more
prostituted than when impracticable edicts are issued.
The dignity of legislation depends more on enforcing,
than on inventing a law ; the latter may be done by
a pedant in his study, but the first must have power,
property, magistracy, penalty, in a word, authority to
support it ; and this energy is its dignity. Where a
tax is levied which the people cannot pay ; where a
kind of obedience is required which the people can-
not yield ; the legislators are forced to dispense with
the obedience required. And what follows? the
people despise a folly which could not foresee, a nar-
rowness of capacity which could not comprehend, a
timidity which dares not, or a weakness which cannot
enforce its decrees. Did not all Europe deride the
absurdity of those magistrates, who, in the reign of Ma-
ry, cited to their commissioners, Fagius and Bueer, who
were both dead and buried, to appear and give an ac-
count of their faith ? and, as if that was not quite
ridiculous enough, caused their bones to be dug up
out of their graves and burnt for non-appearance !

UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION. 29

Aut nunquam tentes, aut perfice, is an excellent
motto, and nowhere more rationally applied than in
the matter of law-making. Had this been attended
to, (but who that attends to the transactions of the
year 1559, can wonder that it was not?) an act of
uniformity could never have been passed. The im-
possibility of enforcing it might have been foreseen ;
nor ought it to be wondered at if five years after,
" her Majesty was informed, that some received the
communion kneeling, others standing, others sitting.
Some baptized in a font, some in a bason ; some sign-
ed with the sign of the cross, others not." In vain
the queen attempted to enforce the act by penalties ;
in vain have succeeding princes endeavoured to en-
force it ; in vain were the formidable forces of oaths,
subscriptions, fines, and prisons brought into the field;
cruelty and lenity, madness and moderation, the gen-
tleness of the eighteenth, and the rage of the seven-
teenth century have been employed in vain 5 the act
stands disobeyed and unrepealed to this day.

Make religion what you will ; let it be speculation,
let it be practice ; make it faith, make it fancy ; let
it be reason, let it be passion ; let it be what you will ;
uniformity in it is not to be expected. Philosophy
is a stranger to it, and Christianity disowns it.

A philosopher holds that the system of the uni-
verse is perfect ; that the duty and glory of man is
to follow, not force nature ; that moral philosophy is
nothing but a harmony of the world of spirit with the
3*

30 UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION.

world of matter ; that all the fine descriptions of vir-
tue are nothing but essays on this conformity ; thus
he proves that moral evil is the production of natural
evil, moral good the production of natural good. A
philosopher would say to a legislator, as the poet to a
man of taste :

To build, to plant, whatever yon intend,
To rear the column, or the arch to bend,
To swell the terrace, or to sink the grot,
In all, let nature never be forgot.

Give a philosopher a farm, and enjoin him to cultivate
it enphilosophe, he will study the soil, the situation, the
seasons, and so on ; and, having comprehended what
his farm is capable of, he will improve it accordingly.
In the same manner he directs his garden, and every
plant in it, never expecting to gather grapes of thorns,
nor Jigs of thistles. What would he, yea, what
would the unphilosophized farmers say of an act for
the uniformity of husbandry ? An act of uniformity,
say the honest rustics, what's that ? What's that !
Why, you must grow nothing but wheat. How ! say
they, some of our lands are too light, they will pro-
duce none ; we can grow rye there indeed ; we have
some even not worth ploughing for rye ; however
they will serve for a sheep-walk, or at worst for a
rabbit-warren. Thus nature teaches men to reason
and thus they reason right.

Go a step farther. Make this philosopher a tutor,
and commit to his tuition a company of youths ; he

UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION. 31

will no more think of uniforming these young gentle-
men, than of teaching his horse to fly, or his parrot
to swim. Their geniuses differ, says he, and 1 must
diversify their educations ; nature has formed this
for elocution, and that for action. And, should the
blind fondness of parents complain, his answer is ready,
ivhatwas I, that I could withstand Godl in short,
place such a man in what disinterested sphere you
will, and his principles guide his practice ; except in-
deed he should be chosen to represent a county ; then
probably, not having the fear of philosophy before his
eyes, he mi^ht vote for an act of uniformity,

A law that requires uniformity, either requires men
to be of the same sentiments, or to practise the same
ceremonies. Now if it should appear that the first is
impossible, the last will fall of itself. For then the
question will be, ought two men, who confessedly
differ in sentiment, to profess that they agree ? Ought
an honest man to be one thing, and appear another ?
Heaven forbid that any should maintain so dangerous
a thesis !

You are a man of extensive knowledge ; you know
the ancient and modern creeds ; you remember that
Harry the Eighth enjoined " all preachers to instruct
the people to believe the whole bible, the three
creeds, the Apostles', the JVicene, and the Athana-
sian, and to interpret all things according to them."
You know that in Edward the Sixth's reign, two-and-
forty articles, drawn up by Cranmer and Ridley,

32 UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION.

were thought necessary to be published, for the avoid-
ing diversity of opinions, and establishing consent
touching triw religion. In the beginning of Eliza-
beth's reign, you know, eleven articles were " set
out by order of both archbishops, metropolitans, and
the rest of the bishops, for the unity of doctrine to be
taught and hoi den o/all persons, vicars and curates;
as well in testification of their common consent in
the said doctrine, to the stopping of the mouths of them
that go about to slander the ministers of the charch
for diversity of judgment, ^c." Two years after, all
the former were reviewed, and the whole bible,
the three creeds, the two-and-forty articles, and
the eleven articles, were collected into one aggre-
gate sum, and made thirty-nine. Subscription to
these has been essential ever since, which subscrip-
tion is an argument (as his Majesty's declaration says)
that all clergymen agree in the true, usual, literal
meaning of the said articles.

Whatever be the true meaning of these articles, it
is not only certain that clergymen explain, and con-
sequently believe them in different and even contra-
ry senses ; but it is also credible that no thirty-nine
articles can be invented by the wit of man, which
thirty-nine men can exactly agree in. It is not ob-
stinacy, it is necessity.

Suppose the thirty-nine articles to contain a given
number of ideas, and, for argument's sake, sup-
pose that number to be fifty ; suppose the capacities

UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION. 33

of men to differ, as they undoubtedly do, and one
man's intelligence to be able to comprehend fifty, a
second's five hundred, and a third's but five-and-twen-
ty. The first may subscribe these fifty points of
doctrine, but who can confine the genius of the sec-
ond ? Or who can expand the capacity of the last ?
In minds capable of different operations, no number
of points of doctrine can possibly be fixed on as a
standard for all ; for fix on what number soever you
will, there will always be too many for the capaci-
ties of some, and for others too few. If this be the
case who can establish an uniformity of sentiment .?
What earthly power can say, " we will not endure any
varying or departing in the least degree 9"

Moreover, it may be asked whether all these points
of doctrine be capable of an equal degree of evi-
dence; and if not, whether it be possible to enforce
an uniform degree of belief. Take for example two
propositions. " The Bishop of Rome hath no juris-
diction in this realm of England." — " Athanasius's
creed — may be proved by most certain warrants of
holy scripture".

The first of these propositions is capable of de-
monstration, but the last is very doubtful ; and if the
degree of assent ought to be exactly proportional to
the degree of evidence, a magistrate, who would es-
tablish uniformity, must either give falsehood the evi-
dence of truth, or oblige men to believe a probable
as fully as a certain proposition. But if neither of

34

UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION.

these can be done, what becomes of uniformity ? An
uniform assent to fifty propositions, some of which
are probable, others certain, and others (pace tantis
talibusque viris) false !

It is the easiest thing in the world to retire, sit
down, invent, and publish a system on any subject.
Imagination, always prolific, contributes largely ; and
it is not difficult to erect an ideal world with Berke-
ley ; an ideal republic with Plato ; or in short a phi-
losophical romance of any kind. All sorts of men,
poets, philosophers, orators, divines, some of each
class have erred on this head ; the most ingenious
wandering the farthest. But when these romantic
machines are applied to real life, to the tillage of a
field, the government of a state, the forming of a
church, they appear only elaborate trifles ; amusive,
but not useful. If such ingenious inventors are great
men, there is another class greater still, a class
whose motto is duce natura seqjjamur.

After all, what is uniformity good for .? Is it es-
sential to salvation .? Is it essential to real piety in
this life ? Does it make a subject more loyal to his
prince ? A husband more faithful, or a parent more
tender ? Cannot a man be honest and just in his deal-
ings without knowing any thing about St Athanasius?
Nay, has not this act produced more sophistry and
cruelty than any other act of parliament from the re-
formation to this day .? Not secular, but spiritual se«

UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION. 35

verity ; not the sophistry of the har, but the sophistry
of the church.

Did the great Supreme govern his empire by an
act of uniformity, men might be damned for believ-
ing too little, seraphs degraded for believing too much.
The creed of the inhabitants of Saturn might be es-
tablished, and theirs that dwelt in the moon only tol-
erated. In such a case, what a fine field of contro-
versial glory would open to the divines of these two
provinces of the kingdom de origine mali. Almighty
Father, can a blind belief please thee ? Can thy crea-
tures believe what they cannot perceive the evidence
of? Can all understand the evidence of the same
number of truths ? Formed with different organs,
educated in different prejudices, dost thou require
the same services ? Art thou indeed the hard master
who reapest where thou hast not sowed 9 Far from
all thy subjects be such a thought !

Conclude then, that if God be a rock, and his work
perfect, if variety be the characteristic of all his
works, an attempt to establish uniformity is revers-
ing and destroying all the Creator's glory. To at-
tempt an uniformity of colour, sound, taste, smell,
would be a fine undertaking ; but what, pray, will
you call an attempt to establish an uniformity of

THOUGHT .?

You will say, Christianity is not the religion of na-
ture, but the religion of revelation ; what therefore
may seem absurd to philosophy, may be explained

36 UNIFORMITY IN RELIGION.

by Christianity. Perhaps the Founder of our holy re-
ligion may have established uniformity. If he has,
uniformity may be a christian though not a philo-
sophical idea. Well, this shall be inquired in the
next letter.

ON THE

EIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT.

FROM THE ARCANA.

You have often admired that Dedication to the
Pope which is prefixed to a piece of Sir Richard
Steele's, entitled An Account of the State of the Ro-
man Catholic Religion throughout the World. —
" Your Holiness," says the writer, " is not perhaps
aware, how near the churches of us protestants have
at length come to those privileges and perfections,
which you boast of as peculiar to your own. — The
most sagacious persons have not been able to discov-
er any other difference between us, as to the main
principle of all doctrine, government, worship, and
discipline, but this one, that you cannot err in any
thing you determine, and we never do. That is, in
other words, that you are infallible, and we always
in the right. We cannot but esteem the advantage
to be exceedingly on our side, in this case, because
Ave have all the benefits of infallibility, without the
absurdity of pretending to it, and without the uneasy
4

ob RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT.

task of maintaining a point so shocking to the under-
standing of mankind."* This is not a libel ; this is
a satire ; the worst is, this satirical stroke is true.
The church of Rome refuses the Scriptures to the
people ; some protestant churches grant the sight of
the book, but retain the meaning. Can you see any
difference ? Search or not search, read or not read,
the sense is fixed, it is at the peril of your prefer-
ment to vary.

Whence church governors pretend to derive this
right does not signify. It can neither be derived
from the nature of Christianity, the doctrine or prac-
tice of Christ or his Apostles, the condition of man
in a state of nature, his condition as a member of
society subject to magistracy, nor indeed in England
from any thing but the act of supremacy; an act
which transferred a power over men's consciences
from the pope to the king. His Majesty Henry the
VIITth, by a master stroke in politics, preferred an
indictment against the whole body of the clergy in
Westminster Hall, and obtained judgment upon the
statute of praemunire, whereby they were all declared
to be out of the king's protection, and to have for-
feited all their goods and chattels ; and then pardoned
them on two conditions ; first, that they should pay
into the exchequer £118,840. Secondly, that they

* [The curious Dedication, from which these words are quoted,
was written by Hoadly. See the whole article in the present
Collection, Vol. i. p. 255. Ep.]

RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 39

should yield his Majesty the title of sole and supreme
head of the church of England; a title which by
subsequent declarations was so explained, as to anni-
hilate the right of private judgment, and yet private
judgment gave birth to this very act.

Suppose his Majesty Harry the VHIth, exercis-
ing the authority allowed by the act of supremacy,
and among other things forming a creed for his sub-
jects ; suppose him a man of shallow capacity ; would
not his creed have been too lean and poor for many
of his subjects ? And on the contrary, suppose him
a man of an exalted genius, of a prodigious stretch of
thought ; would not his creed have been too rich and
full for many more ? But the impossibility of exer-
cising such a power was discussed in the last letter ;
this is to canvass the legality of it.

No mean can be lawful in itself which destroys the
end for which it is appointed. Now the end to be
obtained is the establishment of Christianity. But
how can the depriving men of the right of private
judgment be a lawful mean of obtaining that end,
seeing Christianity is a personal obedience to the laws
of Christ arising from a conviction of their excellency,
and their connexion with certain facts of whose cer-
tainty evidence is given, which evidence to be re-
ceived must be examined ? Christianity proposes
truths of speculation and truths of practice ; if men
can examine and ascertain the first by proxy, why
not obey the last in the same manner ? But who
can love or fear, believe or hope, by substitution ?

40 RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT.

If to deny the right of private judgment be de-
structive of the nature of Christianity in general, it is
more remarkably so of the Christianity of the reform-
ed churches. The right of private judgment is the
very foundation of the Reformation, and without es-
tablishing the former in the fullest sense, the latter
can be nothing but a faction in the state, a schism in
the church. The language of the reformers must be
something like this when they proposed subscription.
"Gentlemen, the right of private judgment allowed
of God, and supported by all kinds of argument, hath
been challenged and exercised by men for upwards
of five thousand five hundred years ; we ourselves
have recovered it from the pope, who had unlawfully
usurped this right, and as God, sat in the temple of
God. In virtue of this right, we have examined
the holy Scriptures, fixed their meaning, and engag-
ed the king to support a creed, which by delegation
we have composed for his Majesty, and for all his
subjects. In us the right of private judgment ceases,
and should England continue five thousand five hun-
dred years longer, no man shall exercise this right
without suffering all the penalties we can inflict. In-
deed all Europe is but just emerging from barbarity,
learning is but in its infancy, and England is torn
and rent with civil dissensions. In all probability,
peace may succeed war, learning may diffuse itself,
and invigorate to maturity ; and a hundred years
honco men may arise infinitely more capable than we

RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 41

aie ; but let succeeding ages improve as they will,
all men shall leave the minster where they find it."
How say you, Sir ? Cranmer stained his archiepis-
copal hands with blood ; but could even Cranmer
have opened the convocation with such a speech as
this ? Yet speak it or no, it is all fact.

The reformers were not to blame for exercising
the right of private judgment themselves; their fault
was a denial of the same right to others. They had
the highest authority for what they did, deriving it
from the doctrine and example of Christ and his
Apostles.

Take one, two, or more of our Saviour's doctrines,
and ask what magic can there be in subscribing them
without examination ? Himself never proposed such
a thing, but on the contrary, exhorted his hearers to
search the Scriptures ; a strange impertinence, unless
the right of private judgment be allowed ! Nor did
he only exhort the people to judge for themselves,
but he also warned his disciples not to usurp that
right. Call no man your father upon the earth, net*
ther be ye called masters. Neither impose your
opinions upon others, nor suffer them to impose theirs
upon you.

Had Jesus Christ considered the right of private
judgment in an unlawful light, he would first have in-
structed Herod, or Caiaphas, or some of the princi-
pal rabbies, and by them he would have converted
the nation. But instead of that, he condemns th^
4*

42

RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT.

doctrines of the church governors, addresses his ser-
mons ad populum, gives it as a proof of his mission
that the gospel was preached to the poor, and constant-
ly protects his followers in the exercise of the right
of private judgment. When the disciples plucked
and ate the ears of corn, they broke two canons of
the established church. It was on a sabbath day;
and probably before morning service was over ; and
the church had determined the illegality of what
they did. Used to judge for themselves, they thought
the church mistaken in this case, ventuied to think
for themselves, and acted accordingly. Did not
Jesus Christ protect them in their claim ?

The Apostles, worthy followers of such a master,
went into all nations, preaching a doctrine which no
church governors upon earth believed. Did they
deny the right of private judgment ? If they had,
their expeditions would have been in the Quixotic
style. Did St Paul write to Corinth? I speak as
to wise men ; judge ye what I say. Did he write
to Rome ? Let every man be fully persuaded in
his own mind. Every body understood this. The
populace at Berea, men and women, searched the
Scriptures daily whether these things were so% The
students at Athens desired to know what the new doc-
trine was, of which the Apostle spake ; for the pur-
pose of search, no doubt. The magistrates, as Gallio,
declared themselves no judges in such matters.
And hence the amazing success of his preaching ;

RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 43

for what himself calls preaching ivith demonstration
of the spirit, and power, St Luke calls reasoning in
the synagogue every sabbath day. Compare Acts
xviii. 4. with 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. Who can account for
all this without the right of private judgment ?

Consider the condition of man in a state of nature ;
and you will readily grant either that a right of de-
termining for himself is no man's, or every man's
right. Vindicate the right to one, and you do it to
two, to two hundred, to two thousand, to the whole
world ; for all in a state of nature are on a level.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free,
prince nor subject ; the right of one argued from his
nature, is the right of all. Whether men forfeit this
right in a state of society is another question.

A christian not only cannot, but if he could he
ought not to dispose of this right, because not only-
he cannot be a christian without its exercise, but all
the purposes of civil government may be answered
without it. The power of the magistrate is an article
of importance enough to demand a particular discus-
sion ; let the remaining space of this letter be filled
up with inquiring, whether, if this advantage of pri-
vate judging had been denied to other classes of
men, the world would not have sustained infinite
damage ?

Choose of the mechanical arts, or of the sciences,
which you please, place it in the state in which it
was seven hundred, five hundred, or two hundred

44 RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT.

years ago ; let its then present state be defined, its
ne plus ultra determined ; let all future search be
prohibited, and what an innumerable multitude of
useful discoveries are men deprived of?

When Columbus first imparted his designs rela-
tive to the discovery of America to Ferdinand, king
of Spain, his Majesty thought proper to advise with
his ecclesiastical counsellors about it. All were
against the project, and quoted St Austin, who, in
his book de eivitate Dei, had declared it impossible
to pass out of one hemisphere into another ; and had
denied that there co dd be any Antipodes. Seneca,
Seneca the heathen, had declared long before, that
future ages would discover new worlds, and that
Thule would not be the farthest region upon earth.
In this case it must be owned that St Austin was an
heretic, and Seneca a sound believer. The king
and Columbus ventured to dissent, judged for them-
selves, and found ample reward for so doing, not-
withstanding clerical decisions. Indeed, St Austin
was not the only person who denied the possibility of
Antipodes ; the church denied it, that is, the head,
Pope Zachary, denied it for all the members. And
this is the order that he sent to his legate Boniface,
Archbishop of Mentz, who had accused Virgil, bish-
op of Saltzburg, of holding the dangerous error of
the Antipodes. " If," says the head of the church,
" he should be convicted of maintaining that per-
verse doctrine, which he hath uttered against the

RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 45

Lord, and against his own sou], that is, that there is
another world, other men under the earth, another
sun and another moon, call a consistory, degrade
him from the honour of the priesthood, et ab ecclesid
pelle." A fine story for a man to be excommuni-
cated for !

Has not all Europe pitied the fate of Copernicus
and Galileo, the fathers of modern astronomy ? The
first kept his work near forty years before he dared
to publish it, and died immediately after it was pre-
sented to him ; the persecution he dreaded being
the supposed cause. As to Galileo, he was charged
with heresy, first, for affirming that the sun was in the
centre ; secondly, that the earth was not in the
centre, but had a diurnal motion. His works were
burnt, himself imprisoned, and being released was
enjoined a penance of repeating once a week for
three years the seven penitential psalms. As if the
penitential psalms said any thing about Galileo's
crime ! But these are some of the fruits of denying
the right of private judgment. The pope, the sole
judge, was pleased to think that these discoveries in
geography and astronomy clashed with certain doc-
trines established in the church.

What a condition would all Christendom have
been in by this time, had not this extravagant claim
been denied, and the right of private judgment
established in arts and sciences ? All the received
systems of music, astronomy, physic, and of all othey

■16 RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT.

arts and sciences, were originally private opinions j
probably they would have been so still, had the
inventors been prohibited publishing, or the public
examining and receiving them. But now, mankind
form into societies, impart their own discoveries,
ofTer rewards to other inventors or improvers of arts
and sciences ; and what follows ? What might be
expected ; the perfection of science. Thus Cicero
accounts for that literary pre-eminence which Greece
had over Rome ; and thus in all nations and in all
ages will the same effects follow the same causes ; in
England as in Rome the maxim is true, honos alit
artes.

Numerous are the objections made to this doc-
trine ; there are, however, but two that are worth
answering. The first is, that Christianity is perfect
and entire in the holy Scriptures, that herein it dif-
fers from human arts and sciences, that therefore the
inquisitiveness necessary for the latter would be
highly injurious to the former. To which it may be
justly answered, that many people doubt this, as the
church of Rome, whose notion is too fully expressed
by Cardinal Hosius, who said that the Scriptures were
of no more authority than iEsop's fables, were it not
for the authority of the church ; as the people called
Quakers, who consider the holy Scriptures as a
secondary rule subordinate to the spirit ; and many
others wholly deny their divinity. Now ought not
all these people to be all ■ivved the liberty of exam-
ining the proofs of the divinity and perfection of the

RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 47

Bible ? For private judgment which is their malady
is also their only medicine. But let the perfection
of the holy canon be granted. It will amount to no
more than granting the perfection of the works of
nature. In both, invisible things, even the eternal
power and Godhead are to be seen and understood
by the things that are made* The word of revela-
tion, like the works of nature, presents objects to view,
but objects to be examined and understood ; and
how can this be without the right of private judg-
ment ?

You say the Scriptures give a perfect account of
the nature of God, the nature of man, the vanity of
the life that now is, the certainty of the life that is to
come ; but how is another man to know this, unless
you allow him to examine and determine for him-
self? It may be a perfect rule, it may be a subordi-
nate rule, it may be a false rule, it may be no rule at
all, for any thing he knows who must not examine,
or if he examines must not determine ; for to retain
the meaning is to retain the book ; and there is no
real difference between denying the examination and
denying the conclusion. You know the story of
father Fulgentio, preaching at Venice on Pilate's
question, What is truth ? He told his hearers that
at last after many searches he had found it out, and
held out a New Testament, and said, that there it
was in his hand ; but then he put it in his pocket,
and coldly said ; But the book is prohibited. Now
what great difference would there have been, if he

46 RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT.

had said, You may read the book, but its true mean-
ing is prohibited ? Yet this is what all the Arminian
clergy in England must say, if they speak consistently
with themselves ; for in the opinion of all impartial
judges the established religion is Calvinism.

The other objection is, that this will open a door
to all sorts of heresies, and the truth will be oppressed
and disappear. Indeed ! And is truth such a tim-
orous, cowardly thing ? What idle fears are these !
Should an honest man be taxed with dissoluteness
and impiety, and should any propose to him a fair
trial before impartial judges, would he be frightened
at it, think you ? Christianity is not to be loaded with
calumnies, she is so already, her only hope is a fair
trial.

But to abridge the matter. Do not facts contradict
this ? Is not the church of Rome full of heresy ?
Have not the Gospel and the right of private judgment
gone hand in hand in the reformation ? Are the power
and promise of God nothing ? Has he not engaged
to support his church ? Does not every thing pro-
posed to men relate to some operation of their
minds ? Does not a rational fancy protect the truth
of imagery in poetry, and an honest conscience reli-
gion ? Strange errors have been proposed which the
penetration of church governors could neither foresee,
nor provide against ; and it has happened to them as
to monstrous images in poems ; they are dead, and
buried, and exploded, and the public taste not injured
thereby.

NATURE AND OBJECTS

OF

BAPTISM,

AS REGARDING CHURCH FELLOWSHIP.

[The article here selected makes a part only of
an essay entitled, The General Doctrine of Tolera-
tion applied to the particular Case of Free Com-
munion. It has a direct reference to that portion of
the Baptist denomination, who hold to what is called
close communion, or the doctrine, that no persons
are qualified to be members of a christian church,
who have not been baptized by immersion. The
author pleads for a mixed communion, by which
persons baptized in infancy are received into Baptist
churches, provided such persons are satisfied with
the validity of their own baptism, as having in their
opinion been performed according to the spirit and
intention of the Gospel.

Robinson argues, that this kind of fellowship is
allowable, because the New Testament nowhere
enjoins any particular mode of baptism, as an abso-
lutely essential qualification for being a member of
the true church of Christ. He goes farther, and
5

50 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

proves, that there is no positive command requiring
baptism in any form, as a prerequisite for church
communion. This is left to the conscience and
judgment of every christian. Any one sincerely
believing the Gospel, and thinking it his duty to
approach the Lord's table, cannot be rightfully de-
nied this privilege, although he may not be con-
vinced that the law of Christ demands his submission
to the ordinance of baptism. The author considers
both of the ordinances as of divine institution, and
as designed for every christian ; but at the same time
he does not suppose there is any immediate connex-
ion between them, nor that any christian minister or
church has a right to refuse one to a brother, who
may desire it, because he cannot see his way clear
to participate of both. There is as much impropri-
ety in withholding the Lord's supper till baptism be
performed, as there would be in refusing baptism till
the person had become a communicant. Neither
the Saviour nor the Apostles have declared, that
either of these shall precede the other, nor that one
shall be denied, if the other have not been complied
with.

Such are the views of the author as expressed at
large in this essay, where they are unfolded with his
usual freedom and perspicuity, and with more than
his usual method, closeness of thought, and sound
argument. This may be ranked among his best
specimens of composition, and has almost none of his
peculiar defects. He has succeeded in checking the
busy meddlings of his fancy, which, on other occa-
sions, is too apt to lead him astray, and prove a
treacherous guide to his taste and judgment. He
thought the subject of high importance, as it truly is,
in its bearing on the principles and practice of chris-
tian fellowship. If his views are correct, and he

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

51

brings scripture and reason to prove them so, many
of the formidable barriers, which have been raised
to keep christians asunder, to frighten the timid and
harden the obstinate, to scatter the brands of dis-
cord and heat the fire of persecution, may be pulled
down, and the ground left open and free where all
the sincere disciples of Jesus may meet in love and
peace, in fellowship and kind feeling.

One head of the essay relating to the history of the
controversy concerning free communion, among the
Baptists, and also a few closing reflections, are omit-
ted, as not immediately connected with the subject
of baptism, to which the parts of the essay here given
are confined.]

The most diligent and upright disciples of Jesus
Christ have always entertained, and do yet entertain
various sentiments concerning articles of faith and
modes of divine worship, and there are but two ways
of acting among christians in this case.

The first, which the far greater part profess to
pursue, is that of obtaining, some way or other, unity
of faith, and uniformity of practice. In the papal
corporation, and in some reformed communities,
riches and power contend with weakness and want
to silence scruples, and to force a real or professed
uniformity. In some of our nonconformist churches,
learning, argument, and beneficence are employed to
produce the same effect. At length, however,
unquestionable facts prove, that, how upright soever
the attempt may be, the end is unattainable. The
mind of man, uncontrolled in its operations, and for

52 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

ever diversifying its modes of thinking, refuses to
submit to restraint, and it is the virtue of such a
mind to avow its refusal.

If uniformity cannot be obtained, say the other,
and the smaller part of christians, there remains only
one thing for us to do ; we must so constitute our
churches as to allow variety of sentiment and prac-
tice, and by so doing acknowledge the force of nature
for the voice of God. Let us put, say they, toler-
ation in the place of uniformity ; this can never be
produced ; but that lies within the reach of every
society.

The English nonconformists have, of all mankind,
best understood, and most practised christian liberty;
but there have arisen in many of their churches, as
may naturally be supposed of men zealous for their
religious principles, doubts and debates concerning
the extent of that toleration, which christian liberty
implies, but which, however, ought not to run into
licentiousness, as it would if it went so far as to
hazard the purity of gospel worship and order.

Under this consideration comes the well known
controversy among our Baptist congregations,
whether churches consisting of members all baptized
by immersion on a profession of faith and repentance,
ought to admit into their fellowship such persons as
profess faith and repentance, and desire communion
with them, but refuse to be baptized by immersion,
because they account they have been rightly bap-

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 53

tized by sprinkling in their infancy. To this ques-
tion, and to this only, we shall confine our attention.
This whole debate, I should suppose, may be
divided into a case of fact and a case of right.

Case of fact. On the one hand, it is a matter
of fact, that many sincere disciples of Christ declare,
that, having renounced all authority except that of
the holy Scriptures to decide in all matters of faith
and practice, and having searched the Scriptures
with all the diligence and rectitude, of which they
are capable, they think infant baptism of divine ap-
pointment, and rightly performed by sprinkling water
on the face.

It is a matter of fact, that many baptist churches
do conscientiously admit such persons into their
fellowship.

It is also a fact, that these churches affirm, and they
are best capable of giving evidence in this case, that
no inconvenience has arisen to them from the mixture
of their communion. The writer of this has been a
member of such a church more than twenty years,
but has never heard of the least disadvantage arising
to the community from it, and he has received a like
attestation from the ministers of several other mixed
churches.

Further, it is a fact, that these members perform
all the duties of church fellowship, glorify God in
their lives and conversations, and support the charac-
5*

54 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

ter of christians as honourably as the baptist brethren
do.

Moreover, it is a matter of fact, that some church-
es have been mixed from before the time of the civil
war in the reign of Charles I. when the baptists first
made their public appearance in England.

In fine, it is an undeniable fact, that, during the
time of the great papal apostaey, while churches were
congregated in private for fear of prelatical persecu-
tion, believers, who held infant baptism, and believ-
ers, who disowned it, were united in the same com-
munity, as ancient manuscripts and authentic records
abundantly prove.

On the other hand, it is certain, that, from the first
public appearance of baptist churches in England,
many have refused, and to this day continue to refuse
to admit into their fellowship all manner of persons,
however qualified in other respects, who have not
been baptized by immersion on their own profession
of faith and repentance.

It is equally true, that all these baptists allow the
piety and virtue of unbaptized believers, account
them members of the mystical body of Christ, and
some of them possessors of knowledge and piety far
superior to their own, and they hold themselves bound
to discharge every kind office to them, except this
one of admitting them to church fellowship.

It is a fact, that these churches do not believe bap-
tism a saving ordinance, nor do they think it a test of

"NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 55

true religion, nor do they bold that unbaptized be-
lievers ought not to be tolerated in a state, nor do
they deny any intelligent being the right of private
judgment ; they only refuse to tolerate infant baptism
in their own churches.

It is also a clear fact, that these baptists affirm,
their refusal does not proceed from wilful ignorance,
obstinacy, spirit of party, bigotry, or any other illibe-
ral disposition ; but from a fear of offending God by
acting without a sufficient warrant from his written
word, the rule of all religious conduct. Their testi-
mony ought to be admitted, because they are the
best judges of their own motives, because the gene-
ral conduct of their lives confirms their testimony,
and because (of some of them it must be allowed)
they extend candour and compliments and polite pro-
fessions of liberality of sentiment far, very far indeed,
beyond what some of their brethren, who hold free
communion, pretend to do.

Moreover, it is a fact unquestionable, that, as some
independent churches practising free communion
have admitted so many baptists members, that the
latter have in time formed a great majority, who have
chosen a baptist minister, through whose influence
the church has become a baptist church ; so, on the
contrary, some baptist churches holding free com-
munion have admitted so many unbaptized members,
that the churches have in time chosen ministers, who
held infant baptism, and lost the ordinance of baptism
bv immersion.

5t> NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

Lastly, it is matter of fact, that the primitive
churches, those in Greece, that at Rome, and all
others, were originally constituted baptist churches,
and that they lost the ordinance of baptism, along
with the doctrines of the Gospel, and the very nature
and essence of christian churches, not by practising
a wise toleration towards men of allowed piety, but
by setting up certain external qualifications of church
members, which in time became tests of orthodoxy,
to which wicked men could and did conform, under
pretence of authority from Christ to establish unifor-
mity.

All these are facts, but none of these constitute
christian law, and, if we would ascertain what is
right, we must distinguish what is from what ought
to be.

Case of right. The question before us is,
right to church fellowship, and our inquiry must ne-
cessarily be, What makes it just and right for church-
es to admit of mixed communion ? The proper an-
swer to this inquiry, on the allowed principles of all
disputants, is, the revealed will of Jesus
Christ, the original projector of church fellowship,
and the sole legislator in all the assemblies of his
saints.

In strict adherence to this truly protestant ground
of action, and in order to try out the question as fair-
ly and clearly as we can, we will ascertain the judge
of the controversy, and the law of the case ; and in

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 57

order to this we will turn the subject on both sides,
and first show negatively what does not make the law
of the case, and then positively what does.

First, then, nothing can be determined concern-
ing the right in question from the universal consent,
real or pretended, of men out of our own community.

We divide these into four classes, and, although
we have all due regard for them, yet we reject each
apart, and all together, as judges pronouncing law in
this case.

1. The fathers are incompetent, for, if any thing
in their writings looks like the case before us, it is
the case of heretical baptism ; but the amount of all
our inquiries on this article would be, that one says
yea, and another says nay, and both refer us to Jesus
Christ, and so we leave off where we began.

2. Roman Catholics, both in council and out of
it, are incompetent ; for their proper work is not in-
vestigation of truth, much less determining protestant
controversies ; but submission to infallible papal au-
thority.

3. Polemical dicines, and pious ones too, in estab'
lished reformed churches, utter no law here. The
case in hand never came, never could come serious-
ly before them, and, if it had, having previously re-
signed the right of judging for themselves by subscrib-
ing a religious test, they could not prudently, or even
uprightly, give an opinion in direct contradiction to it.
AH baptists judge, that these divines are mistaken in

5S NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

every part of baptism, in the nature, the subject, the
mode, and the end of it, and this is one reason of
their dissent from them ; they cannot therefore con-
sistently allow their opinions on baptism and church
government the force of law.

4. Learned critics, foreign or domestic, have no
occasion to interfere in this case, nor can they be of-
fended at our affirming, that the christian church
stands in no need of their assistance in this point
now before them, for this plain reason, it is not a
learned question. It would be a great misfortune to
a company of plain, homely christians in church fel-
lowship, if any case pertaining to life and godliness
must cost fifteen hundred pounds worth of Latin and
Greek to make it evident and clear.

Should all these four classes of writers agree to
make baptism necessary to salvation, necessary to a
civil office, necessary to receiving the Lord's supper,
necessary to the honour of being enrolled in the
parish register while we live, and necessary to that
of putrifying among our neighbours after we are dead,
and should any baptist so far forget himself as to urge
this universal consent as argument why we should not
admit the persons in question to the Lord's table; I
will venture to say, it would be an unfair appeal to
the sheepishncss of some, and the modesty of others,
in a case of conscience, where only scripture is law.
and Christ alone is judge.

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 59

Secondly, nothing can be argued for or against this
right from the great names in our own churches em-
ployed in this controversy. Gale and Foster, Bunyan
and Kiftjn, along with all the moderns, before whom
the case actually came, and who had personal interest
in deciding it, are respectable as counsel pleading on
different sides of the question, and we calmly attend
to what they say ; but none of their opinions con-
stitute the law of the case.

Thirdly, nothing can be determined for it from
general notions of benevolence and usefulness, nor
against it from zealous and uptight intentions of pre-
serving purity of doctrine and order ; for in a case
that comes under written revealed law, as the consti-
tution of christian churches evidently does, general
dispositions must be regulated by particular direc-
tions.

Fourthly, neither can one side infer the right in
question from any particular case mentioned in the
New Testament, nor can the other support their plea
against it by the silence of the New Testament ; for
the truth is, infant baptism was not then known, and
consequently the case of admitting to fellowship per-
sons baptized in infancy does not occur there.

Fifthly, no accidental circumstances can deter-
mine this matter. There have fallen into this con-
troversy, as into all others, a collection of what I call
accidental circumstances, and which have been

60 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

argued upon, and have led off the attention of the
inquirer from the case in hand. For example ;

1. Cases have been supposed and urged, as that
of admitting Jesuits, and Quakers, and others ; but
these suppositions prove nothing. Lawyers say
truly, there is nothing so hard to find, as a case in
point. These cases are not in point, for they never
did happen, they never can happen, and were they
to happen they would not be this case, and they
must be investigated on other principles, and rejected
for other reasons. Neither supposed cases urged on
one side, nor real cases allowed on the other, con-
stitute the law of this case.

2. The motives, tempers, and views of the dis-
putants decide nothing. A sour, surly man may
growl and grumble truth, a well bred man may
warble melodious nonsense, a sincere disputant may
be a very silly fellow, and a man right in his princi-
ples may be wrong in his motives of defending them.

3. Mistakes and self-contradictions in writers
yield no argument against the general truth, which
they are defending. If upright men sometimes in
the heat of controversy forget themselves, we should
do worse than they, were we to magnify their frailty
into a crime, and their crime into a rule of action.
On the other hand, an argument may be uniform,
and free from self-contradiction, and yet it may not
hit the case.

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. CI

4. Frightful consequences, affixed by one writer
to the arguments of another, ought not to be urged
as decisive reasoning constituting the law of a case.

In short, the right or wrong of this case is deter-
minable only by the written revealed will of God, a
test of truth, which all the parties will allow.

Having thus cleared the court of a bustling, noisy
crowd, that do no good because they give no evi-
dence, and do a deal of harm because they perplex
the question by throwing in a quantity of foreign
matter, let us proceed to investigate what is the law
of Christ in this case.

We affirm, then, that it is just, and right, and
agreeable to the revealed will of Christ, that Bap-
tist churches should admit into their fellowship such
persons as desire admission on profession of faith
and repentance, although they refuse to be baptized
by immersion, because they sincerely believe they
have been rightly baptized by sprinkling in their
infancy.

By way of explanation, I beg leave to distinguish
what our divines call the esse, or the being of a
church, from the melius esse, or best being of one ;
for, although I affirm such a mixt church to be a
rightly constituted church, yet I do not say its con-
stitution is so perfect as that of the primitive churches.
A church that tolerates is a good church ; but a
church that has no errors to tolerate is a better.
We do not, therefore, blame those churches, which
6

62 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

were never required to admit unbaptized believers,
for maintaining strict communion ; we only say,
where the requisition is made, a compliance with it
is just and right.

In support of this sentiment, we beg leave to offer
two sorts of arguments, the first taken from those
general principles of analogy, on which, the Scrip-
tures declare, the christian church is founded ; and
the second from the express laws of Jesus Christ
recorded in scripture for the regulation of our con-
duct.

God is an intelligent being. An intelligent being
exercises his intelligence when he constructs any
exterior work, and the work will resemble the intel-
ligence of its maker. A wise and beneficent being
will naturally and necessarily form a work full of
beneficence and wisdom. Should a perfect being
create a world, it would be a world expressive of his
invisible perfections ; should he form a church in this
world, it would be a church constituted on similar
principles ; and, if skill and compassion were excel-
lencies of his nature, compassion and skill might be
expected in the construction of his church. There
would be an analogy, or resemblance, between the
ties of nature and the social bonds of grace.

We find, on reading the New Testament, that
God is the author of Christianity, the creator of the
christian church, that he hath displayed the eminence
of his perfections in the construction of it, and that

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. Co

he hath inviolably preserved an analogy between the
natural and preternatural worlds. This is the true
ground of all the parables, in which Christ taught his
heavenly doctrine, and of all the discourses, by which
he displayed the conduct of God to men under
resemblances of a father and his sons, a shepherd
and his flock, a husbandman and his lands, and so on.
For the same reasons, we are expressly told of the
aboundings, or abundance, of the wisdom and pru-
dence, the power and pity, the forbearance and
patience, love and compassion of God toward his
church. He exercises the same attributes in the
church as in the world, with this only difference, the
display is brightest in the first. This is what we call
analogy, and from this general source we derive
many particular arguments from the nature and fit-
ness of things in defence of our proposition.

First ; It is just, and right, and agreeable to the
nature and fitness of things, that we should diminish
evils and difficulties, which we are not able wholly to
remove. There are in nature a thousand obstacles in
the way of every just pursuit. Agriculture, com-
merce, navigation, literature, government, civil and
domestic, are all attended with difficulties, some of
which threaten the subversion of the whole. It
should seem better, at first sight, that no obstacles
should exist to discourage such just and laudable
pursuits ; but they do exist, and we cannot help their
existence, yea, perhaps their existence may be neces-

64 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

sary to give being and exercise to some of the finest
abilities and virtues of mankind.

Our skill, and our duty too, consist neither in
wholly removing these evils, for that is not in our
power, nor in remaining plaintive and inactive, doing
nothing where much may be done, though not all we
wish ; but in diminishing these ills, and in making the
most and best of such materials as providence hath
actually put into our hands. Every projector of a
great design exercises his penetration in foreseeing
what obstacles may obstruct the execution of it, and
much of his skill lies in providing against them.

We apply this to the case in hand. Christianity
is highly fitted, and admirably adapted to the actual
state and condition of men and things in this world.
It was excellently said by Jesus Christ, The sabbath
was made for man, and not man for the sabbath, im-
plying that positive religion was so contrived as to
yield in certain cases to natural and necessary con-
tingencies. The man, who uses all diligence to ob-
tain evidence of believers' baptism, and cannot obtain
it, and yet desires admission to the Lord's table,
throws a difficulty in the way of the church, a diffi-
culty too, which they cannot remove ; but the ques-
tion is, can they not diminish it ? It hath pleased
God to give this man faith in Christ and moral obedi-
ence ; but it does not please him to give him light,
into adult baptism. He does not belong to the world,
he does not desire to trouble the church, he only

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

05

wishes for a peaceable admission to fellowship ; we
cannot give him knowledge, we cannot baptize him
without it; but we can admit him to the Lord's table,
and so build God's house with the best materials we
have. It is a case of insurmountable difficulty ; it
cannot be wholly removed ; but it may be diminished.
This argument is taken from that analogy which there
evidently is between the economy of nature and that
of Christianity ; and, if it be a less evil for an unbap-
tized believer to be incorporated in the church than
to lie exposed in the world, the reasoning is valid.

Secondly ; It is fit, and right, and agreeable to
the nature of things, that there should be no disqual-
ification where there is no crime. On this principle
we argue against a sacramental test in the episcopal
church. Christian churches are free states, and full
fellowship is the new birthright of every regenerate
man. The candidate for fellowship, who has exam-
ined believers' baptism by immersion, and cannot
obtain evidence of the truth of it, is indeed in a state
in which his knowledge is imperfect ; but his imper-
fection is innocent, because he hath exercised all the
ability and virtue he has, and his ignorance is invol-
untary, yea, perhaps he may have exercised ten times
more industry and application, though without suc-
cess, than many others, who have obtained evidence.
To deny church fellowship to persons of genuine
virtue, and of, it may be, superior virtue too, is to
affix a disgrace and inflict a punishment both without
6*

GG NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

an offence, and in violation of a right. This is a case
of involuntary error, and there is, there can be no
moral turpitude in it. Where there is allowed virtue
in the general course of a man's actions, and no moral
evil in one particular imperfection, it is not imagina-
ble that any punishment should be inflicted, or any
benefit of society denied. Now as we all agree, that
Christ hath constituted his church on principles of
equity, it should seem, this argument is valid and of
force.

Thirdly ; It is just, and right, and agreeable to the
nature of things, that all men should be placed in that
condition, in which they can do most good. By this
rule we determine what is usually denominated a call
in providence, and an all-sufficient rule it is. Now,
by excluding the persons in question from church fel-
lowship, we deprive the church of many wise and
worthy members, who might become extremely use-
ful, and we deny them the liberty of exercising such
abilities as God gave them for the public edification.
If Christ constituted his church on a principle of pro-
moting the greatest social good, it should seem, this
argument also ought to have its weight.

Fourthly ; It is just and right in virtuous commu-
nities, that a visible difference shoidd be put between
the righteous and the wicked. If hatred of sin and
love of holiness were principles of constructing the
christian church, as they certainly were, this argu-
ment too is good. The candidate in question is not

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 0/

rejected on account of any thing in common with the
rest of exempts ; he is neither an infidel, nor an im-
moral man, yet he is as really excluded as they are.
This is a confounding of characters essentially dif-
ferent, which should seem unwarrantable in a society
professedly incorporated for the purpose of separat-
ing and distinguishing them. Shall he that siveareth,
and he that fear eth an oath, be held at equal distance
from the Lord's table, and all the other benefits of
church fellowship ?

Fifthly ; It would argue great unfitness in any
scheme of religion for this world, if it made no pro-
vision for human imperfections. If a plan of religion
provided for the wilful perpetration of vice, it would
be a scheme fit for infernal spirits. If it provided
only for perfect knowledge and virtue, it would be a.
plan fit for only angels to realize ; but if, while it
provided for eminent attainments of knowledge and
goodness, it provided also for imperfections, that is,
for small and inferior degrees of science and moral
excellence ; if it provided for increase of knowledge
and virtue, though accompanied with much ignorance
and weakness, then would it commend itself for a divine
system fitted by perfect wisdom and goodness for frail,
imperfect men. The candidates, for whom we plead,
are allowed to possess that general excellence, a
supreme love to truth and virtue, from which all
knowledge and all good actions proceed ; but they
have not yet attained those peculiar exercises of it.

GS NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

which produce some particular parts of obedience ;
however, it seems fit and right, that they should be
permitted to perform all they do know, and patiently
borne with till they are able to make further progress.
If Jesus Christ constituted his church on principles of
patience and forbearance, condescension and long-
suffering, it should seem, this argument also ought to
have some authority over us.

From arguments of this sort, and we omit many
which might be adduced, there arises a high proba-
bility, that it is just and right for christian churches
to admit of free communion.

Were these reasonings on the nature of things
alone, and were they unconnected with revelation,
and unsupported by it, they would come under the
description of general dispositions not regulated by
particular directions, and consequently they ought
not to be urged in this controversy as decisive in
point of right or law ; but when we examine the
Scriptures, and find, that Christianity is actually con-
stituted on these principles, that these are adopted as
grounds of the divine conduct to us and rules of our
actions to one another, we have a right to conclude,
that these arguments are fair, valid, and conclusive.

We have not hesitated to affirm, that God was the
original projector of those associated bodies of men
for divine worship, which we call christian churches.
We have made no scruple of affirming that the orig-
inal projector formed these churches on principles of

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 09

wisdom, equity, compassion, love of holiness, and so
on. We have not quoted passages of scripture to
prove this ; for the point is beyond contradiction, and
the quotations would be endless. If these should be
accounted only probable arguments, we trust the next
will produce demonstration.

Our second class of arguments we take from
express laws of church fellowship, contained
iu the written revealed will of our excellent legis-
lator.

First ; We argue from his law of exclusion.
There are in the New Testament many lists of per-
sons, who may not be admitted into the christian
church in this world, and who will be denied an
entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Some of these
lists are general, others descend to particulars ; but
there is no mention of the persons now before us in
any of them. Had the law of exclusion been made
by a legislator who could not pry into futurity, it
might be imagined he did not foresee the case, he
did not know that such persons would ever appear ;
but there is no room to urge this ; for our lawgiver
was a prophet, and a tender prophet, who foresaw
all future periods and persons, and forewarned his
church of every thing that would endanger the con-
stitution of it.

The natural tendency of every good man is to
associate witli other good men, and to go with them
into the enjoyment of every immunity, that belongs to

70 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

their society ; and his apparent right to enjoy all the
comforts, as well as to suffer all the crosses of his
condition is so highly probable, that nothing less than
a clear, positive, express law of exclusion seems
necessary to empower any church to refuse his claim.
If there be no such law, and none such there is, we
cannot help saying to the candidate before us, — Come
in, thou blessed of the Lord; wherefore standest thou
without 9

Secondly ; We argue from his law of toleration.
The particular case of the persons in question, we
allow, is not mentioned in the New Testament ; but
a general law including this, and many more such
cases, is published, and answers the end better than
the insertion of any particular case could have done.
This law is, that all christians should enjoy unmo-
lested in the christian church the right of pri-
vate judgment. In a multitude of passages in the
New Testament, the disciples of Christ are exhorted
to judge for themselves in all matters of religion and
conscience, and this right of self-determination is
vindicated not only against magistrates, philosophers,
and rabbies, but against fellow members, as in the
xivth of romans ; and even against inspired Apostles,
as in the 8th and 10th verses of the xxiiid of Mat-
thew. By this law we are bound to allow a universal
toleration in all matters, that do not destroy the
essence of gospel worship.

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 71

Before we proceed it will be necessary to explain
our meaning, and an answer to three plain questions
will sufficiently do so. First, What do we plead
for ? We answer, A free toleration of the right of
private judgment. There is in our churches, strictly
speaking, no such thing as public faith ; our standard
of faith is the holy Scripture, and whatever we pub-
lish beside are the private sentiments of different men,
and different communities ; and it is questionable
whether any two churches so exactly agree as bond
fide to constitute an uniformity. Now we plead for
the allowance of this right to unbaptized believers.
What one of our churches allows to another of our
churches, that, we suppose, each church ought to
allow to all its own members, and to all good men.
Secondly, Where do we plead for the free exercise
of this right to be tolerated ? We answer, not in the
state, that our civil governors allow, but in the church.
We do not only affirm, that unbaptized believers have
a natural right to freedom in Britain, so that they
may congregate, and form churches of their own faith
and order ; but we affirm, that they have a scriptural
right to their own faith and order in our churches.
It will be objected, this would destroy our own faith
and order. In answer to this, we propose a third
question, — How far is this toleration to extend, and
where shall we draw the line ? We answer, in gen-
eral, toleration ought to extend as far as is consis-

72 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

tent with purity of faith and order ; and of this each
church ought to judge for itself.

If we descend to particulars, we must observe,
that the objects of toleration are two, errors of faith,
and irregularities of practice. In regard to faith, we
must distinguish between the facts recorded in scrip-
ture, such as the birth, life, miracles, death, resurrec-
tion, ascension, second corning, judgment, and uni-
versal dominion of Christ, from reasonings upon these
facts ; they are the latter that are the proper objects
of toleration. He who denies the facts is an infidel,
he does not believe the record God has given of his
Son, and consequently he is not a disciple of Christ,
and so can have no claim to sit at his table. A man,
who does believe the facts, but who reasons obliquely
upon them, is a believer, and he ought to be tolerated
though he is an inconclusive reasoner. The other
object of toleration is irregularity of practice. Chris-
tian obedience is submission to two sorts of precepts,
the one moral, the other positive. The object of
toleration in moral obedience is that sort of improper
action, which proceeds not from malice, but from
infirmity. The object of toleration in positive obe-
dience is that sort of irregularity, which proceeds
from innocent mental error. Now this kind of
toleration, while it provides for the peace and pros-
perity of the church, and for the ease of tender con-
sciences, neither destroys the essence of Christianity
nor the purity of gospel worship.

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 73

In effect, we do tolerate in all our churches each
of these imperfections.

1. In regard to faith. A church believing the
mediation of Jesus Christ, which is a fact, admits a
believer of this fact to fellowship, although he thinks
it was necessary in order to this mediation that the
human soul of Christ should pre-exist his incarnation.
In such a case the church distinguishes between the
fact, that Christ is a mediator, which the member
believes, and his false reasoning upon the fact, that
it was necessary the human soul of Christ should be
first created, and that it should exist in heaven before
his incarnation, in order to mediate between God and
man in behalf of the Old Testament saints. The same
may be said of many other cases. We repeat it
again, the clear facts recorded in scripture are not
objects of toleration, and a denier of them is an inn-
del ; but errors in reasoning concerning these facts,
such as the time and mode of their existence, and so
on, are objects of toleration, and of a toleration every
way safe to the facts themselves.

2. In regard to the toleration of moral irregulari-
ties, it is certain we are obliged to make, and do
actually make the distinction above mentioned. We
exclude members for such immoral actions as pro-
ceed from malice, and hatred of virtue ; but we
never think of expelling any for such immoral actions
as proceed from infirmity. For example. Thou
shalt not bear false ivitness against thy neighbour,

74 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

is a moral law, founded in the nature and fitness of
things ; and should any member of our churches,
with malicious motives, and on purpose to injure
another, violate this law, we should expel him as abater
of morality, an enemy to the rights of all mankind,
whom he attacked in the one injured person ; but if
another, without any apparent malice, and merely to
gratify a silly infirmity, a love of tattling and chatter-
ing, take up a false report rashly, and tell it care-
lessly to the injury of his brother, we should not
expel this man. We should pity him, and pray for
him, and exhort him to exercise more caution for the
future ; and, though we knew he had not such an
absolute government of his tongue as the law required,
yet we should tolerate him, and such a toleration
would not in the least endanger the law.

3. In respect to irregularities in obedience to pos-
itive precepts, we all exercise a toleration of these in
an ample manner, except in the one article before
us, to which some of us object. Our churches have
never yet agreed on the number of positive institutes.
All hold two, Baptism and the Lord's supper ; some
add a third, the Sunday sabbath ; others several
more, as worshipping God by singing, anointing the
sick with oil, abstaining from things strangled and
from blood, and so on. We tolerate irregularities in
all these cases, and we have instances of pastors,
who observe the Jewish sabbath, exercising the pas-
toral office with the highest honour both to the church

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 75

and themselves, in congregations that profane the
Jewish sabbath, and hold the Sunday sabbath to be a
positive divine institute. Now as all positive insti-
tutes proceed from the same legislator, and ought all
to be treated with equal reverence, and as we tole-
rate irregularities in some of them without any danger
to the general law of obedience to positive religion,
what imaginable good reason can be produced for
making an exception in the case of unbaptized
believers ?

This kind of toleration is professedly treated of in
the xivth chapter of Romans, and the inspired Apostle
defends it on the principles which we have laid down.
There is, he affirms, no moral turpitude in mental
errors, and the toleration of them is perfectly con-
sistent with the safety of the church, the purity of the
faith, and the order of divine worship.

The believer who was baptized in his infancy,
claims a right to church fellowship ; the church
judges he has not been baptized, but he judges he
has been baptized in his infancy by sprinkling accord-
ing to Christ's institution. Now this is his own case ;
it is a case of innocent irregularity in obeying a pos-
itive institute, and he ought to be allowed to judge
for himself. Here the fort of those who refuse
admission to such members, falls to the ground.
They reason thus. All churches require persons to
be baptized before they admit them to the Lord's
supper ; now we deny that infant sprinkling is bap-

76 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

tism ; we therefore require persons, who have been
sprinkled in infancy, to be baptized by immersion.
When people reason thus for themselves they reason
rightly ; but when they reason thus for another per-
son they claim a right of judging for him, and conse-
quently deny him that liberty of self-judging, which they
themselves exercise under a law, which the common
legislator ordained alike for both. We do not then
plead for the admission of such a person because we
think he hath been baptized, for in our opinion he
hath not ; but because he judges he has been bap-
tized ; and we have no authority to deprive him of
the right of private judgment, but on the contrary we
are expressly commanded to allow him the liberty of
determining for himself.

If any reply, we allow his right of private judgment,
and he may join a church of his own sentiments ; we
answer, that does not alter the case ; you are requir-
ed to allow the exercise of private judgment in your
own community, not out of it, where your allowance
and disallowance operate nothing.

Agreeably to this principle, when I have had the
honour to assist in forming a christian church intend-
ing to hold mixed communion, I have first embodied
the baptists, and they have afterwards admitted
believers, who were satisfied with their infant baptism,
on the footing of toleration. The whole christian
church, in my opinion, was thus planted in this like-
ness of Christ's death, and at the same time the laws

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 77

of christian liberty and toleration were delivered to
them to be made use of as the exigencies of the
times should require.

We will conclude this head with two remarks.
1. When an unbaptized believer appears before the
brethren at a church meeting, and, professing faith
and repentance, requires admission into church fel-
lowship, the true question before the church is not
whether he have been baptized, but whether he may
judge for himself. 2. No instance can be produced
of any Apostle presuming to judge for any primitive
christian, and making his opinion the ground of that
christian's conduct. On the contrary, instances may
be produced of an inspired Apostle's declaring himself
of one opinion on positive institutes, and pleading for
the liberty of christians to embrace another. I know,
and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is
nothing unclean of itself; but to him that esteemeth
any thing unclean, to him it is unclean. Let every
man be persuaded in his own mind.

Thirdly ; Let us attend to the law of baptism
itself in its original institution. While we pay all due
reverence to a divine institute, we ought not to make
more of it than the instructer made ; neither ought
we to remove it from that place in which his wisdom
set it. Baptism has been called an initiating ordi-
nance, that is, an ordinance by which we enter into
something. Let us remember this is not a scriptural
definition of baptism, nor is it admissible except in a
7*

76 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

qualified sense. It certainly was not an ordinance by
which the first baptists entered into church fellowship ;
for into what church did the disciples of John enter
by baptism ? Was Jesus Christ admitted a member
of a christian church by baptism ? Or into what church
did the Eunuch enter, when Philip alone baptized him
in the desert. Believers indeed entered on a public
profession of Christianity in general by baptism, and that
was all. If some were added to the church immedi-
ately after baptism, it may not be amiss to recollect,
that it was immediately after a sermon too, and if this
connexion of events afforded any argument for the
nature and place of baptism, it might as well be
applied to the nature and place of a sermon, and
preaching might be denominated an initiating ordi-
nance. The truth is, preaching produced conversion,
conversion baptism, baptism acquaintance and con-
versation with church members, and conversation
church fellowship. When we receive and use an
ordinance for all the ends for which it was instituted,
we have done all that is required of us ; but when
we employ it to other ends, the least that can be said
of us is, we are wise above what is written. Zeal
may animate us ; but even zeal, when it does not
follow knowledge, will misguide us.

General and vague as this description of the law
of baptism is, it is sufficient for all the ends, for
which we produce it ; however, it may serve to elu-
cidate our meaning, if we be more explicit.

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 79

We affirm, then, that baptism is not a church ordi-
nance, that it is not naturally, necessarily, and actu-
ally connected with church fellowship, and conse-
quently that the doctrine of initiating into the chris-
tian church by baptism is a confused association of
ideas, derived from masters whose disciples it is no
honour to be.

Baptism, we allow, is a positive institute of the
New Testament, and ought to be practised till the
second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ; but, that
it is not a New Testament church ordinance is clear,
for it was administered several years before the Jew-
ish economy was dissolved, and consequently before
there were any such congregated societies in the
world as we call christian churches. When John the
Baptist came first preaching and baptizing, Jesus,
who afterward founded the christian church, lived a
private life at Nazareth ; he did not enter on his min-
istry till the death of John, and he did not dissolve
the Jewish ecclesiastical state till his own death.
People were baptized all this time on a general pro-
fession of faith in the Messiah, and repentance tow-
ards God. This notion of baptism was preserved
after the resurrection of Christ, and after christian
churches had been congregated by his order, as
appears by the baptism of the Eunuch, who indeed
made a profession of faith, but was not associated to
any particular christian church.

80 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

Much lias been said, in pretended proof of the
place of baptism, concerning the order of Christ's
words in that commission to baptize, which he gave
his Apostles ; it is recorded in the last chapter of
Matthew; but, if this trite method of reasoning
amounted to argument, we might form one thus.
Christ instituted the Lord's supper before his death.
Christ made baptism a positive christian institute
after his resurrection. Therefore the Lord's sup-
per ought to be received before we are baptized.

In a word, the law of christian baptism is, that
believers in Christ should publicly avow their faith
in him, and their resolution to obey him, by being
baptized ; and the proper time for this is after believ-
ing and before admission to fellowship ; however, as
there was no original and actual, so there is no nat-
ural and necessary connexion between baptism and
fellowship. Baptism was an initiation into the pro-
fession of Christianity at large, not into the practice
of it in any particular church.

This is the law, and, we think, the whole law of
baptism, and we plead this law in favour of the right
of unbaptized believers to the Lord's supper, for two
plain and obvious reasons. 1. A command to per-
form one duty is not a prohibition of another duty.
Keep the sabbath day holy is one command, and hon-
our thy father is another ; but as there is no neces-
sary connexion between the two, a breach of the
first does not release from an obligation to the last.

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 81

Baptism and the Lord's supper are both commanded;
but a law to perform one does not prohibit the observ-
ance of the other ; the unbaptized believer's way to
the Lord's table is therefore clear. 2. It is remark-
able, that this positive law of baptism is not enforced
by any penalties, and herein it differs from all other
positive institutes. By what right then do we affix
to the breach of it such a severe penalty as exclusion
from church fellowship ? After all, our candidates
neither deny the right of Christ to give laws, nor
that he hath given the law of baptism, nor that they
are bound to obey it ; their error lies in an innocent
mistake concerning the proper subject, and the right
mode of administering it. There is no penalty affixed
to this mistake, and one law is not a prohibition, or
repeal of another law.

Fourthly ; We argue for the right of our candi-
dates from the law of gifts. When Jesus Christ
ascended to heaven, he gave gifts unto men for the
work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the gen-
eral body of christians. To one he gave a discern-
ing of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, one
had a gift of psalmody, another a doctrine, and
another an interpretation ; and when the whole church
came together into one place, all these gifts were
directed to the public edification.

It is the opinion of some, that all these spiritual
gifts have been continued in the church in some
degree ever since ; and it is the thankful acknowl-

82 NATURE AND OBJECTS OP BAPTISM.

edgment of all, that a part of them have been per-
petuated to this day. Whatever general gifts men
receive from God, they receive under a natural obli-
gation of employing and improving them, of improv-
ing them for themselves, and employing them for the
benefit of others ; and whatever special ecclesiastical
abilities good men receive from Christ, the Lord of
the church, they receive both under a general obli-
gation to use them, and under a special scriptural
law to employ them in the church for the edification
of the body.

Some unbaptized believers have received out of
the fulness of Christ spiritual abilities ; one hath a
gift of psalmody ; another a comprehensive knowl-
edge of christian theology, and an aptitude to teach
it to others ; a third excels in spiritual discernment,
and so on ; and we have four remarks to make on
their case.

1. The want of baptism does not incapacitate these
men. The vigour of mental operations is not im-
paired by this defect. Neither fancy, judgment,
memory, penetration, freedom of speech, courage,
nor any other excellence that goes into the compo-
sition of a spiritual gift, is annihilated or debilitated
on that account ; so that they are sufficient to the
work of edifying the body of Christ.

2. There is no express law in the New Testa-
ment, no prohibition against the use of these abilities
on account of the imperfection of baptism, no pre-

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 83

cedent of exclusion, no trace or distant hint of any
such thing.

3. There is an express law given to persons who
have spiritual gifts, to make use of them. They are
not only given to every man to profit withal, but a
positive command is issued, that they should employ
them in the church for general advantage. Call
all these abilities of unbaptized believers one talent,
if you please, and suppose the baptist brother to have
two ; it will yet follow, that the one talent should not
be hid in a napkin, but put to use, that, when the
Lord comes, he may receive his own with improve-
ments.

4. Christian societies cannot regularly employ
these gifts among themselves, unless they admit the
persons, who have them, to fellowship. An unbap-
tized believer, having spiritual abilities, would not
proceed regularly, if he were to begin by demand-
ing of the church a right to exercise his gifts among
them for the public benefit, according to Christ's
command. He should first demand fellowship. In
such a case a people would reason justly if they
allowed, that such a man had a right to exercise his
abilities in the church ; that the church was obliged
by law to allow and direct the exercise ; that they
had no jurisdiction except over their own members,
and consequently that right to exercise spiritual gifts
included in itself right to church fellowship. The
law, that obliges the candidate to exercise his gifts in

84 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

the church, and the law, that commands the church
to employ him and to direct the exercise, both include
in themselves an obligation to fellowship ; they oblige
a candidate to join a church, and they oblige a church
to admit him.

All our churches allow and employ neighbouring
independent ministers to preach to them, and daily
express a high and just regard for their useful
labours ; yet, in their opinion, these men are unbap-
tized ; now we only ask such a toleration for mem-
bers of their own congregations, as they daily exer-
cise toward ministers of other congregations ; and we
urge this for the former, because by their conduct to
the latter they prove, that they do not hold the want
of baptism to be either a natural or a legal inca-
pacity.

Fifthly ; Let us advert to the law of constitution.

When the compassion of Christ induced him to
descend into Judea to recover a profligate world to
order, he brought along with him three sorts of ex-
cellencies ; a body of perfect wisdom, an asortment
of holy affections, and a set of upright actions. Some
degree of each of these he imparted to his disciples,
and they to others, as assisted by his divine influ-
ence. All believers, therefore, have a threefold
union to Christ ; an union of sentiment, for they
believe what he believed and taught ; an union of
affection, for they love and hate what he loved and
hated ; what gave him pleasure gives them pleasure,

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

85

tind what grieved him gives them pain ; and an union
of practice, for they form their lives on his example.
Hence arises an union to one another, as well as an
union of all to Christ the head.

It is not imaginable, that any of the disciples of
Christ possess these excellencies in such perfection
as he possessed them ; nor is it to be supposed, that
ail poss?ss them in such eminent degrees as some do;
however, there is a general excellence, a supreme
love to truth and virtue, religious principle, if you
will, in all believers, on which the christian church is
constituted.

All the laws of constituting New Testament
churches are formed on this just notion of sacred
social union, and our argument turns on the suffi-
ciency of this general excellence, which is common to
all believers, for all the ends and purposes of church
fellowship.

The kingdom of Christ is an empire of truth and
virtue, and it is not necessary to a residence in this
kingdom that men should be perfect in either. A
supreme love to truth as far as we know it, and a
conscientious attachment to virtue as far as we have
discovered it, are high qualifications, and all-suffi-
cient for the duties and enjoyments of church com-
munion. Now these are always found in the persons,
for whose right we are pleading. They are partakers
of God's promise in Christ by the Gospel ; they have
heard the word of truth, the Gospel of their salva-
8

86 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

tion ; the eyes of their understanding are enlight-
ened ; they know the hope of his calling, and the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints ;
they have been quickened together with Christ ; and
are made nigh by his blood ; they have access by
one spirit unto the Father, and therefore they ought
not to be accounted any more strangers and foreign-
ers, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the
household of God, and to be built upon the founda-
tion of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ him-
self being the chief corner-stone.

Persons thus qualified are equal to every duty of
church fellowship, to singing, prayer, hearing, and
even preaching the word, receiving the Lord's sup-
per, visiting the sick, relieving the poor, in a word,
to all the duties men owe as church members to
themselves, to one another, and to God.

They, who answer such descriptions, are so very
like the primitive christians, that, it must be allowed,
the inducement to receive them into church fellow-
ship is exceedingly strong, so strong, that nothing
short of an express prohibition seems sufficient to
their exclusion.

Here is one article, it will be said, in which these
believers do not answer the description of the prim-
itive christians ; they have not been baptized by im-
mersion ; but, let it be observed, that baptism strictly
speaking is neither repentance towards God, nor faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ ; it is only a profession of

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 87

ihese graces, and church fellowship seems in the
very nature of the thing to be connected with the
graces, and neither with this, nor with any other
peculiar mode of professing them. We are sure, the
church triumphant is formed on a connexion between
grace and glory, a profession of grace sometimes
accompanying the connexion, and sometimes not; and
we are taught to pray, thy ivill be done on earth as it
is in heaven.

Right to church fellowship either lies in grace
alone, or in baptism alone, or in both united, or in
something beyond them all. If it lie in grace alone,
then faith in Christ and moral obedience have a
merit in them, and church fellowship is a reward due
to such merit. An humble christian will not allow
this. If it lie in baptism alone, then an irreligious
person may get himself baptized, and claim his right
to church communion. If it lie in grace and bap-
tism united, then a worse idea of merit than the
former will return ; for then it will follow, that baptism
gives grace its value ; but this is inadmissible. The
truth is, right to church communion lies in that royal
charter, which the clemency of God hath granted to
mankind, and by which persons of certain descrip-
tions, though imperfect in knowledge, defective in
obedience, and encompassed with many infirmities,
are allowed the favour of approaching him through
the merit of Jesus Christ. Title to fellowship lies

88 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISE.

in the divine charter, meetness for it in personal qual-
ification.

This qualification, which I call grace, general
excellence, religious principle, supreme love to truth
and virtue, perfect in kind, imperfect in degree, is
essential to church fellowship ; and the law of Christ
is, that his churches should be constituted, of only-
such persons as actually possess this real, sterling
goodness, which, being sufficient to answer all the
ends for which churches are constituted, ought always
to be considered as a clear warrant to admit to fel-
lowship. Of such persons the primitive churches
were constituted, and nothing can be clearer, than
the divine testimony, that against such as these, who
bring forth the spiritual fruits of love, joy, peace, long-
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem-
perance, against such there is no law.

Finally; We urge in behalf of our candidates,
the law of release and deprivation. We put these
two together, because release from duty includes in
it a deprivation of benefits. Jesus Christ found man-
kind in slavery ; his Gospel finds a sinner in that
condition still ; but he both manumits and enfran-
chises this slave, he frees him from bondage, and
invests him with privileges and immunities. This is
done in the moment of regeneration, and hence-
forward this man ceaseth to be a servant of men in
religious matters. He ceaseth to be his own, he
becomes a subject of him, who died and rose asjain,

NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM. $9

that he might be Lord both of the dead and the
living. The highest authority binds him to duty,
and endows him with privilege ; and none but the
highest authority can deprive him of one, or release
him from the other. This undeniable fact is full to
our purpose.

This argument is taken from that obligation, under
which the legislator hath laid every good man, to
perform the moral as well as the positive duties of
church fellowship, and from which obligation neither
their own imperfections, nor any church acts of ours,
can or ought to discharge them. If we refuse to
admit the believers in question into church fellowship,
they owe us none of the moral duties, which belong
to that condition, and it would be unreasonable in us
to require them. When they build places of worship,
support ministers, use hospitality, provide utensils for
the celebration of ordinances, contribute toward main-
taining the poor and relieving the sick members of the
church, they do nothing but their duty, if they them-
selves be members ; but, if they be denied the ben-
efit of membership, all these are works of superero-
gation. Now we argue, that God hath connected in
the holy Scriptures duty with benefit, and that, hav-
ing enjoined the duties on all believers, he intended
all believers should reap the benefit of performing
them. The Lord's supper is both a duty and a ben-
efit ; Christ requires all his disciples to partake of
ihe Lord's supper ; but, if we deny them the benefit,
S*

90 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

we discharge them from the duty ; and the same may
be said of all other church duties and benefits. Now.
as we pretend to no authority to release from dutyr
how is it possible we should claim an authority to
deprive of benefit ?

Many of these duties are moral duties, of natural
and immutable obligation ; and such is the absolute
necessity of obedience to them, that, when a man is
so circumstanced as to be obliged either to omit a
moral duty or a positive precept, the latter is in all
cases to give way to the former. If obedience to pos-
itive precepts must subside to make room for obedi-
ence to moral precepts, how is it possible to con-
ceive, that innocent ignorance of a positive precept
should become a release from moral obligations ; and
such are many of the duties of church fellowship.

Waiving for the present a multitude of arguments
fairly and honestly deducible from scripture source,
such as the law of positive institutes, and others, the
sum of what we have said from the oracles of God is
this. God, a being possessed of all possible perfec-
tions, is the author of Christianity, the founder and
friend of the christian church. He displayed the
magnificence of his perfections in framing the whole,
and continues to display it in governing every part.
The same attributes, that pervade and direct all his
natural empire, constitute and guide his moral domin-
ion in the church. His wisdom leaves difficulties
and obstacles, to us as immoveable as the decrees of

NATURE AND OBJECTS OP BAPTISM. 9V

fate ; but he leaves them to excite and improve our
mental abilities and moral excellencies, which he
intends we should employ in diminishing them. His
perfect justice never disqualifies without a crime.
His benevolence produces the greatest social good.
His love of holiness distinguishes the righteous from
the wicked, and his patience and compassion bear
with imperfections, both of knowledge and virtue j
hence we have inferred, that the admitting of an un-
baptized believer to church fellowship is, on the
principles of Christianity, a wise, a just, a benev-
olent, a holy, a humane action.

We have gone further ; we have examined many
express laws, given in writing by Jesus Christ to
his church for the more easy ad ministration of justice
in it. There are laws of exclusion ; but unbaptized
believers are not in the list. There are laws of tole-
ration, which actually include their case. There is a
law of baptism ; but this does not repeal any other
law, nor prohibit the observance of any other positive
institute. There is a law for the exercise of gifts, in
which the incorporation of some is included ; and
there is the law of constitution, which authorizes the
incorporation of all good men. We have examined,
finally, the law of release and deprivation, and we
have thence inferred that the interests of morality,
and the pleasures of Christianity, if not diminished by
excluding these persons, would, however, be greatly
promoted by admitting them. We do not presume

92 NATURE AND OBJECTS OF BAPTISM.

to have exhausted the subject ; there remain many
more reasons for the practice, which we have been
defending ; but these are satisfactory to us, and, we
think, they deserve consideration by our brethren ;
however, the writer of this does not mean to lengthen
out the controversy ; and, he hopes, should any
think proper to deny all he has affirmed, no offence
will be taken at his future silence. He would not
seem to slight the admonitions of any good man ; but,
on this article, his judgment is settled ; he has only
to add, Grace be with all them,) that love our Lord
Jesus Christ in sincerity !

REFLECTIONS

ON

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY,

CIVIL ESTABLISHMENTS IN RELIGION,

AND

TOLERATION.

FROM THE PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME OF SAURIN.

Very early in life I was prepossessed in favour of
the following positions.

Christianity is a religion of divine original.

A religion of divine original must needs be a per-
fect religion, and answer all the ends, for which it
was revealed, without human additions.

The christian religion hath undergone considerable
alterations since the times of Jesus Christ, and his
Apostles ; and yet, Jesus Christ was then accounted
the finisher as well as the author of faith.

The doctrines of revelation, as they lie in the in-
spired writings, differ very much from the same doc-
trines, as they lie in creeds of human composition.

The moral precepts, the positive institutes, and the
religious affections, which constitute the devotion of
most modern christians, form a melancholy contrast

94 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

to those, which are described by the guides, whom
they profess to follow.

The light of nature, and that of revelation ; the
operations of right reason, the spirit of the first, and
the influence of the Holy Ghost, the soul of the last ;
both proceeding from the same uniform Supreme
Being, cannot be supposed to be destructive of each
other, or even in the least degree to clash together.

The finest idea, that can be formed of the Supreme
Being, is that of an infinite intelligence always in har-
mony with itself; and, accordingly, the best way of
proving the truth of revelation is that of showing the
analogy of the plan of redemption to that of creation
and providence. Simplicity and majesty character-
ize both nature and scripture ; simplicity reduces
those benefits, which are essential to the real happi-
ness of man, to the size of all mankind ; majesty
makes a rich provision for the employment and su-
peradded felicity of a few superior geniuses, who
first improve themselves, and then felicitate their infe-
rior brethren, by simplifying their own ideas, by re-
fining and elevating those of their fellow creatures,
by establishing a social intercourse, consolidating fra-
ternal love, and along with it ail the reciprocal ties,
that unite mankind.

Men's ideas of objects essential to their happiness
are neither so dissimilar, nor so numerous, as inatten-
tive spectators are apt to suppose.

AND TOLERATION. 95

Variety of sentiment, which is the life of society,
cannot be destructive of real religion.

Mere mental errors, if they be not entirely inno-
cent in the account of the supreme Governour of
mankind, cannot be, however, objects of blame and
punishment among men.

Christianity could never be intended to destroy the
just natural rights, or even to diminish the natural
privileges of mankind. That religion, which allows
the just claims, and secures the social happiness of
all mankind, must needs be a better religion than that,
which provides for only a part at the expense of the
rest. God is more glorified by the good actions of
his creatures, expressive of homage to him, and
productive of universal social good, than he is by
uncertain conjectures, or even accurate notions, which
originate in self-possession, and terminate in social
disunion.

How clear soever all these maxims may be, a cer-
tain degree of ambition or avarice, ignorance or mal-
ice, presumption or diffidence, or any other irregular
passion, will render a man blind to the clearest de-
monstration, and insensible to the most rational and
affecting persuasion. These positions, mere opinions
and prepossessions before examination, become de-
monstrative truths after a course of diligent search.
But, previous to all inquiries concerning the doc-
trines of Christianity, it is absolutely necessary to
establish that of christian liberty ; for, say we

06 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

what we will, if this preliminary doctrine of right be
disallowed, voluntary piety is the dream of an enthu-
siast ; the oracles of God in the christian world, like
those of the Sibyls in pagan Rome, are sounds con-
vertible to senatorial sense ; and the whole christian
mission, from the first prophet down to the last min-
ister, is one long muster-roll of statesmen's tools, a
disgrace to their species, a contradiction to their pro-
fession, a dishonour to their God.

Christian liberty in Italy is liberty to be a Roman
catholic, that is, liberty to believe what the bishop of
Rome affirms to be true, and liberty to perform what
he commands to be done. Christian liberty in some
reformed churches is liberty to renounce what the
reformers renounced, to believe what they affirmed,
and to practise what they required. But we, who
have not so learned Christ, define christian liberty
otherwise ; and, if we be asked, What is christian
liberty ? we answer, it is liberty to be a christian.
One part of Christianity consists of propositions to be
believed. Liberty to be a christian believer is liber-
ty to examine these propositions, to form a judgment
of them, and to come to a self-determination, ac-
cording to our own best abilities. Another part of
Christianity consists of duties to be performed. Lib-
erty to be a practical christian is liberty to perform
these duties, either as they regard God, our neighbour,
or ourselves. Liberty to be a christian implies lib-
erty not to be a christian, as liberty to examine a

AND TOLERATION'. 97

proposition implies liberty to reject the arguments
brought to support it, if they appear inconclusive, as
well as liberty to admit them, if they appear demon-
strative. To pretend to examine Christianity, before
we have established our right to do so, is to pretend
to cultivate an estate, before we have made out our
title to it.

The object of christian liberty, that, with which a
man, who would examine Christianity, has to do, is a
system of christian doctrine j but, having established
the doctrine of right, before we proceed to exercise
this right by examining the religion proposed to man-
kind by Jesus Christ, it is absolutely necessary to in-
quire what we ought, on sound principles of just and
fair reasoning, to expect to find in it. I know some
truths without revelation. I have a full demon-
stration in nature that there is one God, that it is im-
possible there should be more than one, that he is an
intelligent Spirit, and that he is a wise and bountiful
Being. Should any religion, which pretends to be
divine, affirm, there is a plurality of gods — God is
not an intelligent spirit — God is an unwise and an
unkind being — I should have a right to reject this
pretended revelation. Indeed, should a revealed
religion allow my demonstrations, and afterwards ex-
plain them in a manner quite subversive of my for-
mer explications of them ; should it affirm, God is,
as you say, a wise and bountiful Being, but he dis-
plays his wisdom and goodness not in governing his

98 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

intelligent creatures as you have imagined ; such a
moral government, I will prove to you, would show a
defect of wisdom and goodness ; but he displays the
supreme perfection of both by providing for such and
such interests, and by bestowing such and such benefits,
as have either escaped your notice, or were beyond
your comprehension ; — in this case, I ought not to reject
revelation ; for, although I can demonstrate without
inspiration the wisdom and goodness of God, yet I
cannot pretend by the light of nature to know all the
directions, and to ascertain all the limits of these
perfections.

Lay Christianity before me who will, I expect to find
three things in it, which I call analogy, proportion, and
perfection. Each of these articles opens a wide field
of not incurious speculation, and each fully explained
and applied would serve to guide any man in his
choice of a religion, yea, in his choice of a party
among the various divisions of christians. But alas !
we are not employed now-a-days in examining and
choosing religious principles for ourselves, but in sub-
scribing, and defending those of our ancestors. A
few hints then shall serve.

By analogy I mean resemblance ; and when I say
a revealed religion must bring along with it analogical
evidence, I mean, it must resemble the just dictates
of nature. The reason is plain. The same Supreme
Being is the author of both. The God of nature has
formed man for observing objects, comparing them

AXD TOLERATION. 99

together, laying down principles, inferring consequent
ces, reasoning and self-determining. He has not
only empowered all mankind to exercise these abili-
ties, but he has even constrained them by a necessity
of nature to do so; he has not only rendered it impossi-
ble for men to excel without this exercise, but he has
even rendered it impossible for them to exist safely
in society without it. In a word, the God of nature
has made man in his own image, a self-determining
being, and, to say nothing of the nature of virtue, he
has rendered free consent essential to every man's
felicity and peace. With his own consent, subjection
makes him happy ; without it, dominion over the
universe would make him miserable.

The religion of nature, (I mean by this expression
here, the objects which display the nature of the Dei-
ty, and thereby discover the obligations of mankind,)
is in perfect harmony with the natural constitution of
man. All natural objects offer evidence to all ; but
force is on none. A man may examine it, and he
may not examine it ; he may admit it, and he may
reject it ; and, if his rejection of the evidence of natu-
ral religion be not expressed in such overt acts as
are injurious to the peace of civil society, no man is
empowered to force him, or to punish him ; the su-
preme moral Governour of the world himself does not
distinguish him here by any exterior punishments ; at
most he expresses his displeasure by marks attached
to the person of the culprit, and concealed from all

100 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

the rest of his fellow creatures ; and the glory of civil
society is not to encroach on the moral government
of God.

Christianity comes, pretends to come from the God
of nature ; I look for analogy, and 1 find it ; but I find
it in the holy Scriptures, the first teachers, and the
primitive churches.

In all these I am considered as a rational creature ;
objects are proposed, evidence is offered ; if I admit
it, I am not entitled thereby to any temporal emolu-
ments ; if I refuse it, I am not subjected to any tem-
poral punishments ; the whole is an affair of con*
science, and lies between each individual and his
God. I choose to be a christian on this very ac-
count. This freedom, which I call a perfection of
my nature ; this self-determination, the dignity of my
species, the essence of my natural virtue, this I do
not forfeit by becoming a christian ; this I retain, ex-
plained, confirmed, directed, assisted by the regal
grant of the Son of God. Thus the prerogatives of
Christ, the laws of his religion, and the natural rights
of mankind being analogous, evidence arises of the
divinity of the religion of Jesus.

I believe, it would be very easy to prove, that the
Christianity of the church of Rome, and that of every
other establishment, because they are establishments,
are totally destitute of this analogy. The religion of
nature is not capable of establishment ; the religion
of Jesus Christ is not caoable of establishment ; if the

AND TOLERATION. 101

religion of any church be capable of establishment, it is
not analogous to that of Scripture, or that of nature.
A very simple example may explain our meaning.
Natural religion requires man to pay a mental hom-
age to the Deity, to venerate his perfections, by ado-
ring and confiding in them. By what possible means
can these pious operations of the mind be established0?
Could they be forced, their nature would be destroy-
ed, and they would cease to be piety, which is an
exercise of judgment and will. Revealed religion
requires man to pay a mental homage to the Deity
through Jesus Christ ; to venerate his perfections by
adoring and confiding in them as Christianity directs ;
by repentance, by faith, by hope, and so on. How
is it possible to establish those spiritual acts ? A hu-
man establishment requires man to pay this christian
mental homage to the Deity by performing some ex-
ternal ceremony, suppose bowing to the east. The
ceremony, we grant, may be established ; but, the
voluntary exercise of the soul in the performance,
which is essential to the Christianity of the action, —
who in the world can establish this ? If the religion
of Jesus be considered as consisting of external rites
and internal dispositions, the former may be estab-
lished ; but, be it remembered, the establishment of
the exterior not only does not establish the interior,
but the destruction of the last is previously essential to
the establishment of the first.

No religion can be established without penal sanc«
9*

102 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

tions, and al] penal sanctions in cases of religion are
persecutions. Before a man can persecute, he must
renounce the generous, tolerant dispositions of a chris-
tian. No religion can be established without human
creeds ; and subscription to all human creeds implies
two dispositions contrary to true religion, and both
expressly forbidden by the author of it. These two
dispositions are, love of dominion over conscience
in the imposer, and an abject preference of slavery
in the subscriber. The first usurps the rights of
Christ ; the last swears allegiance to a pretender.
The first domineers, and gives laws like a tyrant ; the
last truckles like a vassal. The first assumes a do-
minion incompatible with his frailty, impossible even
to his dignity, yea, denied to the dignity of angels ;
the last yields a low submission, inconsistent with his
own dignity, and ruinous to that very religion, which
he pretends by this means to support. Jesus Christ
does not require, he does not allow, yea, he express-
ly forbids both these dispositions, well knowing, that
an allowance of these would be a suppression of the
finest dispositions of the human soul, and a degrading
of revelation beneath the religion of nature. If hu-
man inventions have formerly secularized Christianity,
and rendered such bad dispositions necessary in times
of ignorance, they ought to be exploded now, as all
christians now allow this theory. The Son of God
did not come to redeem one part of mankind to serve
the secular views and unworthy passions of the other;

AND TOLERATION. 103

but he obtained freedom for both, that both might
serve him, without fear, in holiness and righteousness
all the days of their lives. When churches reduce
this theory to practice, they realize in actual life,
what otherwise makes only a fine idea decyphered
in books ; and by so doing they adorn their Christianity
with the glorious evidence of analogy.

Suppose the God of nature should think proper to
reveal a simple system of astronomy, and to require
all mankind to examine and believe this revelation
on pain of his displeasure. Suppose one civil gov-
ernment, having examined this revelation, and ex-
plained the sense in which they understood it, should
endeavour to establish their explication by temporal
rewards and punishments. Suppose they should re-
quire all their subjects to carry their infants in their
arms to a public school, to answer certain astronomi-
cal interrogations, to be put by a professor of astrono-
omy ; as in general, — Wilt thou, infant of eight days
old, wilt thou be an astronomer ? Dost thou renounce
all erroneous systems of astronomy ? In particular,
dost thou admit the true Copernican system .? Dost
thou believe the revealed explication of this system ?
And dost thou also believe that explication of this
revelation, which certain of our own predecessors in
the profession believed, which explication the gov-
ernment has adopted, and which we, your masters
and parents, in due obedience, receive ? Suppose a
proxy required to answer for this infant ; All this, I,

101 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

proxy for this child, do steadfastly believe ; and sup-
pose, from this hour the child became a reputed as-
tronomer. Suppose yet further, this child should
grow to manhood, and in junior life should be press-
ed, on account of the obligation contracted in his in-
fant state, to subscribe a certain paper, called an as-
tronomical creed, containing mathematical definitions,
astronomical propositions, and so on ; and should be
required for certain rewards to examine and approve,
to teach and defend this creed, and no other, without
incurring the penalty of expulsion from all public
schools, a deprivation of all honours, which he might
be supposed on other accounts to merit, an exclu-
sion from all offices of trust, credit, and profit, in
some cases a loss of property, in others imprisonment,
in others death.

In this supposed case, I ask, would not the estab-
lishment of this system be an open violation of the doc-
trine of analogy, and should I not have a right to rea-
son thus ? — The revelation itself is infallible, and the
author of it has given it me to examine ; but the es-
tablishment of a given meaning of it renders exami-
nation needless, and perhaps dangerous. The God
of nature has given me eyes, instruments, powers,
and inclinations to use them ; eyes, faculties, and
dispositions as good as those of my ancestors, and in-
struments better ; but all these advantages, which
may be beneficial to me, if they confirm the truth of
the explication, may be fatal to me, if they lag be-

AND TOLERATION. 105

hind, or ken beyond the bound of the creed. Nature
says, a constellation is a collection of stars, which in
the heavens appear near to one another. This is a
plain, simple truth ; I open my eyes, and admit the
evidence. Revelation says, each fixed star is a sun,>
the centre of a system, consisting of planets inhabited
by intelligent beings, who possess one sense and two
faculties more than the inhabitants of this globe, and
who worship the most high God in spirit and in truth.
I cannot comprehend this whole proposition ; but
there is nothing in it contrary to the nature of things ;
and I believe the truth of it on the testimony of the
revealer. The established explication of this propo-
sition is that of Ptolemy. He numbered the stars in
the constellation Bootes, and found them, or suppos-
ed he found them, twenty-three ; and this number I
am to examine and approve, teach and defend, against
all opponents. What shall I say to Tycho, who af-
firms, Bootes contains only eighteen ? Must I exe-
crate Hevelius, who makes them fifty-two ? After
all, perhaps Flamstead may be right ; he says there
are fifty-four. Does not this method of teaching as-
tronomy suppose an hundred absurdities ? Does it
not imply the imperfection of the revealed system,
the infallibility of Ptolemy, the erroneousness of the
other astronomers, the folly of examination, or the
still greater madness of allowing a conclusion after a
denial of the premises from which it pretends to be
drawn ? When I was an infant, I am told, I was

106 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

treated like a man ; now I am a man, I am treated
like an infant. I am an astronomer by proxy. The
plan of God requires faculties, and the exercise of
them ; that of my country exchanges both for quiet
submission. I am, and I am not, a believer of as-
tronomy.

Were it affirmed, that a revelation from heaven
established such a method of maintaining a science of
speculation, reasoning, and practice, every rational
creature would have a right to doubt the truth of
such a revelation ; for it would violate the doctrine of
analogy, by making the Deity inconsistent with him-
self. But we will pursue this track no further ', we
hope nothing said will be deemed illiberal ; we dis-
tinguish between a constitution of things, and many
wise and good men, who submit to it ; and we only
venture to guess, if they be wise and good men
under such inconveniences, they would be wiser and
better men without them. At all adventures, if we
owe much respect to men, we owe more to truth, to
incontrovertible, unchangeable truth.

A second character of a divine revelation is pr&-
portion. By proportion I mean relative fitness ;
and, when I affirm, a divine revelation must bring
along with it proportional evidence, I mean to say, it
must appear to be exactly fitted to those intelligent
creatures, for whose benefit it is intended. In the
former article we required a similarity between the
requisitions of God and the faculties of men ; in this

AND TOLERATION. 107

we require an exact quantity of requisition commen-
surate with those faculties. The former regards the
nature of a revelation ; this has for its object the limits
of it. Were it possible for God, having formed a
man only for walking, by a messenger from heaven to
require him to fly, the doctrine of analogy would be
violated by this requisition ; and were he to deter-
mine a prodigious space, through which he required
him to pass in a given time ; were he to describe an
immense distance, and to enjoin him to move through
it with a degree of velocity impossible to him, the
doctrine of proportion, would be violated ; and the
God of revelation would in both cases be made con-
tradictory to the God of nature.

The christian revelation, we presume, answers all
our just expectations on these articles ; for all the
truths revealed by it are analogous to the nature of
things, and every article in it bears an exact propor-
tion to the abilities of all those, for whose benefit it is
given. Our Saviour treats of the doctrine of pro-
portion in the parable of the talents, and supposes the
Lord to apportion the number of talents, when he
bestows them, and the rewards and punishments,
which he distributes for the use and abuse of them,
to the several ability of each servant. St Paul de-
picts the primitive church in all the beauty of this
proportional economy; the same God worketh all
diversities of operations in all differences of adminis-
trations, dividing to every man severally as he will.

108 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

This economy, he says, assimilates the christian
church to the human body, and gives to the one, as to
the other, strength, symmetry, and beauty, evidently
proving that the author of creation is the author of
redemption, framing both by one uniform rule of
analogy and proportion.

Full of these just notions, we examine that descrip-
tion of revelation, which human creeds exhibit, and
we perceive at once, they are all destitute of pro-
portional evidence. They all consist of multifarious
propositions, each of which is considered as essential
to the whole, and the belief of all essential to an en-
joyment of the benefits of Christianity, yea, to those
of civil society, in this life, and to a participation of
eternal life in the world to come. In this case the
free gifts of God to all are monopolized by a few,
and sold out to the many at a price, far greater than
nine tenths of them can pay, and at a price, which
the remaining part ought not to pay, because the do-
nor has not empowered these salesmen to exact any
price, because by his original grant all are made joint
proprietors, and because the payment would be at
once a renunciation of their right to hold by the orig-
inal grant, and of their Lord's prerogative to bestow.

What can a declaimer mean, when he repeats a
number of propositions, and declares the belief of
them all essential to the salvation of man 9 Or what
could he reply to one, who should ask him, which
man do you mean, the man in the stall ? It is Sir

AND TOLERATION. 109

Isaac Newton. Or the man in the aisle ? It is
Tom Long, the carrier. God Almighty, the Creator
of both, has formed these two men with different or-
gans of body, and different faculties of mind ; he has
given them different advantages and different oppor-
tunities of improving them ; he has placed them in
different relations, and empowered the one to teach
what the other, depend on his belief what will, is not
capable of learning. Ten thousand Tom Longs go
to make up one Newtonian soul. Is it credible, the
God who made these two men, who thoroughly knows
them, who is the common parent, the just governor,
and the kind benefactor of both, should require of
men so different, equal belief and practice ? Were
such a thing supposable, how unequal and dispro-
portional, how inadequate and unlike himself, must
such a Deity be ! To grasp the terraqueous globe
with a human hand, to make a tulip cup contain the
ocean, to gather all the light of the universe into one
human eye, to hide the sun in a snuffbox, are the
mighty projects of children's fancies. Is it possible,
requisitions similar to these should proceed from the
only wise God ?

There is, we have reason to believe, a certain
portion of spirit, if I may be allowed to speak so,
that constitutes a human soul ; there are infinitely
different degrees of capability imparted by the Cre-
ator to the souls of mankind ; and there is a certain
ratio, by necessity of nature, between each degree of
10

110 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

intelligence and a given number of ideas, as there is
between a cup capable of containing a given quantity,
and a quantity of matter capable of being contained
in it. In certain cases it might serve my interest,
could the palm of my hand contain a hogshead ; but
in general my interest is better served by an inability
to contain so much. We apply these certain princi-
ples to revelation, and we say, God hath given in the
christian religion an infinite multitude of ideas ; as in
nature he hath created an infinite multitude of
objects. These objects are diversified without end,
they are of various sizes, colours, and shapes, and
they are capable of innumerable motions, productive
of multifarious effects, and all placed in various de-
grees of perspicuity. Objects of thought in the
christian religion are exactly similar ; there is no end
of their variety ; God and all his perfections, man
and all his operations, the being and employment of
superior holy spirits, the existence and dispositions of
fallen spirits, the creation and government of the
whole world of matter and that of spirit, the influ-
ences of God and the obligations of men, the disso-
lution of the universe, a resurrection, a judgment, a
heaven, and a hell, all these, placed in various de-
grees of perspicuity, are exhibited in religion to the
contemplation of intelligent creatures.

The creatures who are required to contemplate
these objects, have various degrees of contemplative
ability ; and their duty, and consequently their virtue,

AND TOLERATION.

Ill

which is nothing else but a performance of duty, con-
sists in applying all their ability to understand as
many of these objects, that is, to form as many ideas
of them, as are apportioned to their own degree. So
many objects they are capable of seeing, so many
objects it is their duty to see. So much of each
object they are capable of comprehending, so much
of each object it is their duty to comprehend. So
many emotions they are capable of exercising, so
many emotions it is their duty to exercise. So many
acts of devotion they can perform, so many Almighty
God will reward them for performing, or punish them
for neglecting. This I call the doctrine of religious
proportion. This I have a right to expect to find in
a divine revelation, and this I find in the most splendid
manner in Christianity, as it lies in the Bible, as it
was in the first churches, and as it is in some modern
communities. I wish I could change the word some
for all.

This doctrine of proportion would destroy every
human creed in the world, at least it would anni-
hilate the imposition of any. Instead of making one
creed for a whole nation, which by the way provides
for only one nation, and consigns over the rest of the
world to the destroyer of mankind ; instead of doing
so, there should be as many creeds as creatures ;
and instead of affirming, the belief of three hundred
propositions is essential to the felicity of every man
in both worlds, we ought to affirm, the belief of half

112

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

a proposition is essential to the salvation of Mary, and
the belief of a whole one to that of John, the belief
of six propositions, or, more properly, the examina-
tion of six propositions, is essential to the salvation of
the reverend Edward, and the examination of sixty
to that of the right reverend Richard ; for, if I can
prove, one has sixty degrees of capacity, another six,
and another one, I can easily prove, it would be
unjust to require the same exercises of all ; and a
champion ascribing such injustice to God would be
no formidable adversary for the pompousness of his
challenge, or the caparisons of his horse ; his very
sword could not conquer, though it might affright from
the field.

The world and revelation, both the work of the
same God, are both constructed on the same princi-
ples ; and were the book of Scripture, like that of
nature, laid open to universal inspection, were all
ideas of temporal rewards and punishments removed
from the study of it, that would come to pass in the
moral world, which has actually happened in the
world of human science ; each capacity would find its
own object, and take its own quantum. Newtons
will find stars without penalties, Millons will be poets,
and Lardners christians without rewards. Calvins
will contemplate the decrees of God, and Baxters
will try to assort them with the spontaneous volitions
of men ; all, like the celestial bodies, will roll on in
the quiet majesty of simple proportion, each in his

AND TOLERATION,

113

porper sphere shining to the glory of God the Crea-
tor. But alas ; We have not so learned Christ.

Were this doctrine of proportion allowed, three
consequences would follow. First ; Subscription to
human creeds, with all their appendages, both penal
and pompous, would roll back into the turbulent ocean,
the See I mean, from whence they came ; the Bible
would remain a placid emanation of wisdom from
God ; and the belief of it a sufficient test of the obe-
dience of his people. Secondly ; Christians would
be freed from the inhuman necessity of execrating one
another ; and by placing Christianity in believing in
Christ, and not in believing in one another, they
would rid revelation of those intolerable abuses, which
are fountains of sorrow to christians, and sources of
arguments to infidels. Thirdly ; Opportunity would
be given to believers in Christ to exercise those dis-
positions, which the present disproportional division
of this common benefit obliges them to suppress, or
conceal. O cruel theology, that makes it a crime to
do what I have neither a right nor a power to leave
undone !

I call perfection a third necessary character of a
divine revelation. Every production of an intelli-
gent being bears the characters of the intelligence,
that produceth it, for as the man is, so is his strength.
A weak genius produces a work imperfect and weak
like itself. A wise, good being produces a work wise
and good ; and, if his power be ecj"jal to his wisdom
10*

114 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

and goodness, his work will resemble himself; and
such a degree of wisdom, animated by an equal
degree of goodness, and assisted by an equal degree
of power, will produce a work equally wTise, equally
beneficial, equally effectual. The same degrees of
goodness and power accompanied with only half the
degree of wisdom will produce a work as remarkable
for a deficiency of skill as for a redundancy of effi-
ciency and benevolence. Thus the flexibility of the
hand may be known by the writing ; the power of
penetrating, and combining in the mind of the phy-
sician, may be known by the feelings of the patient,
who has taken his prescription ; and, by parity of
reason, the uniform perfections of an invisible God
may be known by the uniform perfection of his pro-
ductions.

I perceive, 1 must not launch into the wide ocean
of the doctrine of perfection, and 1 will confine my-
self to three characters of imperfection, which
may serve to explain my meaning. Proposing to
obtain a great end without the use of proper means
— the employing of great means to obtain no valuable
end — and the destroying of the end by the use of the
means employed to obtain it, are three characters of
imperfection rarely found in frail intelligent agents ;
and certainly they can never be attributed to the
great Supreme. A violation of the doctrine of anal-
ogy would argue God an unjust being ; a violation
of that of proportion would prove him an unkind be-

AND TOLERATION. 115

ing ; and a violation of this of perfection would argue
him a being void of wisdom. Were we to suppose
him capable of proposing plans impossible to be exe-
cuted, and then punishing his creatures for not execut-
ing them, we should attribute to the best of beings
the most odious dispositions of the most infamous of
mankind. Heaven forbid the thought !

The first character of imperfection is proposing to
obtain a great end without the use of proper means.
To propose a noble end, argues a fund of goodness ;
but not to propose proper means to obtain it, argues
a defect of wisdom. Christianity proposes the no-
ble end of assimilating man to God, and it employs
proper means of obtaining this end. God is an in-
telligent being, happy in a perfection of wisdom; the
Gospel assimilates the felicily of human intelligences
to that of the Deity by communicating the ideas of
God on certain articles to men. God is a bountiful
being, happy in a perfection of goodness ; the Gos-
pel assimilates the felicity of man to that of God by
communicating certain benevolent dispositions to its
disciples, similar to the communicative excellencies
of God. God is an operative being, happy in the
display of exterior works, beneficent to his creatures ;
the Gospel felicitates man by directing and enabling
him to perform certain works beneficent to his fellow
creatures. God condescends to propose this noble
end, of assimilating man to himself, to the nature of
mankind, and not to certain distinctions, foreign from

11G CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

the nature of man, and appendant on exterior cir-
cumstances. The boy, who feeds the farmer's mean-
est animals ; the sailor, who spends his clays on the
ocean ; the miner, who, secluded from the light of
the day and the society of his fellow creatures, spends
his life in a subterraneous cavern, as well as the re-
nowned heroes of mankind, are all included in this
condescending, benevolent design of God. The Gos-
pel proposes to assimilate all to God ; but it proposes
such an assimilation, or, may I say, such a degree of
moral excellence, as the nature of each can bear; and
it directs to means so proper to obtain this end, and
renders these directions so extremely plain, that the
perfection of the designer shines with the utmost
glory.

I have sometimes imagined a Pagan ship's crew in
a vessel under sail in the wide ocean ; I have supposed
not one soul aboard ever to have heard one word of
Christianity ; I have imagined a bird dropping a New
Testament, written in the language of the mariners
on the upper deck : I have imagined a fund of uned-
ucated, unsophisticated good sense in this company,
and I have required of this little world answers to
two questions ; first, What end does this book pro-
pose ? The answer is, This book teas written,
that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and that believing we might have life through
his name. I ask, secondly, What means cloth this
book authorize a foremast man, who believes, to em-

AND TOLERATION. 117

ploy to the rest of the crew to induce them to believe,
that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing, they
also, with the foremast man, may have eternal felicity
through his name ? I dare not answer this question ;
but I dare venture to guess, should this foremast
man conceal the book from any of the crew, he would
be unlike the God, who gave it to all ; or should he-
oblige the cabin-boy to admit his explication of the
book, he would be unlike the God, who requires the
boy to explain it to himself; and should he require
the captain to enforce his explication by penalties, the
captain ought to reprove his folly for counteracting
the end of the book, the felicity of all the mariners ;
for turning a message of peace into an engine of fac-
tion ; for employing means inadequate to the end ;
and so for erasing that character of perfection, which
the heavenly donor gave it.

A second character of imperfection is — the employ-
ing of great means to obtain no valuable end.
Whatever end the author of Christianity had in view,
it is beyond a doubt, he hath employed great means
to effect it. To use the language of a prophet, he
hath shaken the heavens, and the earth, and the sea,
and the dry land. When the desire of all nations
came, universal nature felt his approach, and preter-
natural displays of wisdom, power, and goodness,
have ever attended his steps The most valuable
ends were answered by his coming. Conviction fol-
lowed his preaching ; and truths, till then shut up in

118 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

the counsels of God, were actually put into the pos-
session of finite minds. A general manumission fol-
lowed his meritorious death, and the earth resounded
with the praises of a spiritual deliverer, who had set
the sons of bondage free. The laws of his empire
were published, and all his subjects were happy in
obeying them. In his days the righteous flourished,
and on his plan, abundance of peace would have con-
tinued as long as the moon endured. Plenty of in-
struction, liberty to examine it, and peac2 in obeying
it. These were ends worthy of the great means used
to obtain them.

Let us for a moment suppose a subversion of the
Ixxii psalm, from whence 1 have borrowed these
ideas ; let us imagine the kings of Tarshish and of
the isles bringing presents, not to express their hom-
age to Christ, but to purchase that dominion over the
consciences of mankind, which belongs to Jesus
Christ ; let us suppose the boundless wisdom of the
Gospel, and the innumerable ideas of inspired men
concerning it, shrivelled up into the narrow compass
of one human creed ; let us suppose liberty of thought
taken away ; and the peace of the world interrupted
by the introduction and support of bold usurpations,
dry ceremonies, cant phrases, and puerile inventions.
In this supposed case, the history of great means re-
mains, the worthy ends to be answered by them are
taken away, and they who should thus deprive man-
kind of the end of the sacred code, would charge

AND TOLERATION. 119

themselves with the necessary obligation of account-
ing for this character of imperfection. Ye prophets
and apostles ! ye ambassadors of Christ ! How do
ye say, we are wise, and the taw of the Lord is with
us ? LdO ! certainly in vain made he it, the pen of
the scribes is in vain ! Precarious wisdom, that must
not be questioned ! useless books, which must not be
examined ! vain legislation, that either cannot be
obeyed, or ruins him who obe)s it !

All the ends that can be obtained by human
modifications of divine revelation, can never compen-
sate for the loss of that dignity, which the perfection
of the system, as God gave it, acquires to him; nor
can it indemnify man for the loss of that spontaneity,
which is the essence of every effort that merits the
name of human, and without which virtue itself is
nothing but a name. Must we destroy the man to
make the christian 9 What is there in a scholastic
honour, what in an ecclesiastical emolument, what
in an archiepiscopal throne, to indemnify for these
losses ? Jesus Christ gave his life a ransom for men,
not to empower them to enjoy these momentary dis-
tinctions ; these are far inferior to the noble ends of
his coming ; — the honour of God, and the Gospel at
large ; the disinterested exercise of mental abilities,
assimilating the freeborn soul to its benevolent God ;
a copartnership with Christ in promoting the universal
felicity of all mankind ; these, these are ends of re-
ligion worthy of the blood of Jesus, and deserving the
sacrifice of whatever is called great among men.

120 CHRISTIAN* LIBERTY

Thirdly ; The destruction of the end by the use of
the means employed to obtain it, is another character
of imperfection. St Paul calls Christianity, unity.
He denominates it the unity of the Spirit, on account
of its author, object, and end. God, the Supreme
Spirit, is the author of it ; the spirits, or souls of men
are the object ; and the spirituality of human souls,
that is, the perfection of which finite spirits are capa-
ble, is the end of it. The Gospel proposes the re-
union of men divided by sin, first to God, and then
to one another ; and, in order to effect it, reveals a
religion, which teaches one God, one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; one rule of
faith, one object of hope ; and, lest we should imag-
ine this revelation to admit of no variety, we are told,
grace is given to every one according to the propor-
tional measure of the gift of Christianity. Each be-
liever is therefore exhorted to speak the truth in love,
to walk with all lowliness, meekness, and longsuffer-
ing, and to forbear another in love. Here is a char-
acter of perfection ; for these means employed to
unite mankind are productive of union, the end of
the means.

Should men take up the Gospel in this simplicity,
and, accommodating it to their own imaginary, supe-
rior wisdom, or to their own secular purposes, should
they explain this union so as to suit their designs, and
employ means to produce it ; and should ihey de-
nominate their system, Christianity, it would certainly

AND TOLERATION.

124

be, in spite of its name, a Christianity marked with
the imperfection of its authors ; for in the christian
religion, in the thing itself, and not in its appellation,
shines the glorious character of perfection.

The christian religion unites mankind. By what
common bond does it propose to do so ? By love.
This is a bond of perfectness, a most perfect bond.
This is practicable, and productive of every desirable
end ; and the more we study human nature, the
more fully shall we be convinced, that we cannot
imagine any religion to do more ; nor need we desire
more, for this answers every end of being religious.
Had Jesus Christ formed his church on a sentimental
plan, he must have employed many means which he
has not employed, and he must have omitted many
directions which he has given. One of his means
of uniting mankind is contained in this direction,
Search the Scriptures, and call no man your master
upon earth ; that is to say, exercise your very differ-
ent abilities, assisted by very different degrees of aid,
in periods of very different duration, and form your own
notions of the doctrines contained in the Scriptures. Is
not this injunction destructive to a sentimental union ?
Place ten thousand spectators in several circles around
a statue erected on a spacious plain, bid some look
at it through magnifying glasses, others through com-
mon spectacles, some with keen naked eyes, others
with weak diseased eyes, each on a point of each
circle different from that where another stands, and
11

122 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

all receiving the picture of the object in the eye by
different reflections and refractions of the rays of
light ; and say, will not a command to look destroy
the idea of sentimental union ; and, if the establish-
ment of an exact union of sentiment be the end, will
not looking, the mean appointed to obtain it, actually
destroy it, and would not such a projector of unifor-
mity mark his system with imperfection ?

Had Jesus Christ formed his church on the plan
of a ceremonial union, or on that of a professional
union, it is easy to see, the same reasoning might be
applied ; the laws of such a legislature would coun-
teract and destroy one another, and a system so un-
connected would discover the imperfection of its au-
thor, and provide for the ruin of itself.

These principles being allowed, we proceed to
examine the doctrines of Christianity, as they are pre-
sented to an inquisitive man, entirely at liberty to
choose his religion, by our different churches in their
several creeds. The church of Rome lays before me
the decisions of the council of Trent. The Lutheran
church the confession of Augsburg. One nation
gives me one account of Christianity, another a differ-
ent account of it, a third contradicts the other two,
and no two creeds agree. The difference of these
systems obliges me to allow, they could not all pro-
ceed from any one person, much less could they all
proceed from such a person, as all christians affirm
Jesus Christ to be. I am driven, then, to examine

AND TOLERATION. 123

his account of his own religion contained in the allow-
ed standard book, to which they all appeal; and here
I find, or think I find, a right of reduction, that removes
all those suspicions, which variety in human creeds
had excited in my mind concerning the truth of
Christianity.

The doctrines of Christianity, I presume to guess,
according to the usual sense of the phrase, are divisi-
ble into two classes. The first contains the principal
truths, the pure genuine theology of Jesus Christ,
essential to the system, and in which all christians in
our various communities agree. The other class con-
sists of those less important propositions, which are
meant to serve as explications of the principal truths.
The first is the matter of our holy religion, the last is
our conception of the manner of its operation. In
the first we all agree ; in the last our benevolent re-
ligion, constructed on principles of analogy, propor-
tion, and perfection, both enjoins and empowers us
to agree to differ. The first is the light of the world,
the last our sentiments on its nature, or our distribu-
tion of its effects.

In general each church calls its own creed a sys-
tem of Christianity, a body of christian doctrine, and
perhaps not improperly ; but then each divine ought
to distinguish that part of his system, which is pure
revelation, and so stands confessedly the doctrine of
Jesus Christ, from that other part, which is human
explication, and so may be either true or false, clear

124 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

or obscure, presumptive or demonstrative, according
to the abilities of the explainer who compiled the
creed. Without this distinction, we may incorporate
all our opinions with the infallible revelations of heaven,
we may imagine each article of our belief essential
to Christianity itself, we may subjoin a human codicil
to a divine testament, and attribute equal authenticity
to both ; we may account a proposition confirmed by
a synodical seal as fully authenticated, as a truth con-
firmed by an apostolic miracle ; and so we may bring
ourselves to rank a conscientious disciple of Christ,
who denies the necessity of episcopal ordination, with
a brazen disciple of the devil, who denies the truth of
revelation, and pretends to doubt the being of a God.
But here, I feel again the force of that observation,
with which this article begins. How few, compara-
tively, will allow, that such a reduction of a large
.>ystem to a very small number of clear, indisputable,
essential first principles, will serve the cause of Chris-
tianity ! How many will pretend to think such a re-
duction dangerous to thirty-five out of thirty-nine ar-
ticles of faith ! How many will confound a denial of
the essentiality (so to speak) of a proposition, with a
denial of the truth of it ! How many will go farther
still, and execrate the latitudinarian, who presumes
in this manner to subvert Christianity itself! I re-
joice in prospect of that day, when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to his
Gospel ; when we shall stand, not at the tribunal of

AND TOLERATION.

125

human prejudices and passions, but at the just bar of
a clement God.

Here, were I only concerned, I would rest, and
my answer to all complainants should be a respectful
silence before their oracles of reason and religion ;
but, alas ! I have nine children, and my ambition is
(if it be not an unpardonable presumption to compare
insects with angels) my ambition is to engage them
to treat a spirit of intolerance, as Hamilcar taught
Hannibal to treat the old Roman spirit of universal do-
minion. The enthusiastic Carthaginian parent, going
to offer a sacrifice to Jupiter for the success of an in-
tended war, took with him his little son Hannibal,
then only nine years of age, and eager to accompany
his father, led him to the altar, made him lay his little
hand on the sacrifice, and swear that he would never
be in friendship with the Romans. We may sanctify
this thought by transferring it to other objects, and,
while w7e sing in the church, glory to God in the
highest, vow perpetual peace with all mankind, and
reject all weapons except those which are spiritual,
we may, we must declare war against a spirit of in-
tolerance from generation to generation. Thus Mo-
ses wrote a memorial in a book, rehearsed it in the
ears of Joshua, built an altar, called the name of it
Jehovah my banner, and said, the Lord hath sivorn,
that the Lord will have war with Jlmalek from gene-
ration to generation.
11*

12G CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

We are neither going to contrast human creeds
with one another, nor with the Bible ; we are not
going to affirm or deny any propositions contained in
them ; we only design to prove, that all consist of
human explications as well as divine revelations ; and
consequently, that all are not of equal importance,
nor ought any to be imposed on the disciples of Christ,
either by those who are not disciples of the Son of
God, or by those who are. The subject is delicate
and difficult, not through any intricacy in itself, but
through a certain infelicity of the times. An error
on the one side would be fatal to revelation, by allur-
ing us to sacrifice the pure doctrines of religion to a
blind benevolence ; and on the other, an error may be
fatal to religion itself, by inducing us to make it a
patron of intolerance. We repeat it again, a system
of christian doctrine is the object of christian liberty ;
the articles, which compose a human system of chris-
tian doctrine, are divisible into the two classes of doc-
trines and explications ; the first we attribute to
Christ, and call Christian doctrines, the last to some
of his disciples, and these we call human explications;
the first are true, the last may be so ; the first exe-
crate intolerance, the last cannot be supported with-
out the spirit of it. I will endeavour to explain my
meaning by an example.

Every believer of revelation allows the authenticity
of this passage of holy Scripture ; God so loved the
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that

AND TOLERATION. 127

whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. If we cast this into propositional
form, it will afford as many propositions as it contains
ideas. Each idea clearly contained in the text, I call
an idea of Jesus Christ, a christian sentiment, a truth
of revelation, in a word, a christian doctrine. Each
of these ideas of the text, in forming itself into a prop-
osition, will naturally associate with itself a few other
ideas of the expletive kind ; these I call secondary
ideas in distinction from the first, which I call prima-
ry ; or, in plainer style, ideas clearly of the text, I
name christian doctrines, or doctrines of Christ, and
all the rest I call human explications of these doc-
trines ; they may be christian, they may not; fori
am not sure, that the next idea, which always follows
a first in my mind, was the next idea to the first in the
mind of Jesus Christ ; the first is certainly his, he
declares it; the second might be his, but as he is si-
lent, I can say nothing certain ; where he stops, my
infallibility ends, and my uncertain reason begins.

The following propositions are evidently in the text,
and consequently they are christian doctrines, ema-
nating from the author of Christianity, and pausing to
be examined before the intelligent powers of his crea-
tures.— -There is an everlasting life, a future state of
eternal happiness — the mediation of the only begotten
Son of God is necessary to men's enjoyment of eter-
nal happiness — believing in Christ is essential to a
participation of eternal felicity — every believer in

123 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

Christ shall have everlasting life — -unbelievers shall
perish — all the blessings of Christianity originate in
God, display his love, and are given to the world.
These, methinks, we may venture to call primary
ideas of Christianity, genuine truths of revelation ;
but each doctrine will give occasion to many ques-
tions, and although different expositors will agree in
the matter of each proposition, they will conjecture
very differently concerning the manner of its opera-
tion.

One disciple of Christ, whom we call Richard,
having read this text, having exercised his thoughts
on the meaning of it, and having arranged them in
the propositional form now mentioned, if he would
convince another disciple, whom we name Robert, of
the truth of any one of his propositions, would be
obliged to unfold his own train of thinking, which con-
sists of an associated concatenation of ideas, some of
which are primary ideas of Jesus Christ, and others
secondary notions of his own ; additions, perhaps of
his wisdom, perhaps of his folly, perhaps of both ; but
all, however, intended to explicate his notion of the
text, and to facilitate the evidence of his notion to his
brother. Robert admits the proposition ; but not ex-
actly in Richard's sense. In this case, we assort
ideas, we take what both allow to be the original ideas
of our common Lord, and we reckon thus ; — Here
are nine ideas in this proposition, numbers one, three,
six, nine, genuine, primary ideas of Christ 5 numbers

AND TOLERATION. 120

two, four, five, secondary ideas of Richard ; numbers
seven, eight, secondary ideas of Robert ; the first
constitute a divine doctrine, the last a human expli-
cation ; the first forms one divine object, the last two
human notions of its mode of existence, manner of
operation, or something similar ; but, be each what
it may, it is human explication, and neither synod nor
senate can make it more.

No divine will dispute the truth of this proposition,
God gave Jesus Christ to believers ; for it is demon-
strably in the text. To this, therefore, Beza and
Zanchy, Malancthon and Luther, Calvin and Armin-
ius, Baxter and Crisp agree, all allowing it a chris-
tian doctrine ; but each associating with the idea of
gift, other ideas of time, place, relation, condition, and
so on, explains the doctrine, so as to contain all his
own additional ideas.

One class of expositors take the idea of time, and
by it explain the proposition. God and believers,
says one, are to be considered contemplatively before
the creation in the light of Creator and creatures, ab-
stracted from all moral considerations whatever ;
then God united Christ to his church in the pure
mass of creatureship, without the contemplation of
Adam's fail. Another affirms, God gave a Saviour
to men in design, before the existence of creatures ;
but in full contemplation, however, of the misery in-
duced by the fall. A third says, God gave Christ to
believers, not in purpose before the fall ; but in prom-

130 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

ise immediately after it. A fourth adds, God gives
Christ to believers on their believing, by putting them
in possession of the benefits of Christianity. In all
these systems, the ideas of God, Christ, believers, and
gift, remain, the pure, genuine ideas of the text ; and
the association of time distinguisheth and varieth the
systems.

A second class of expositors take the idea of rela-
tion, and one affirms, God and believers are to be
considered in the relative light of govemour and sub-
jects ; the characters of a perfect government are
discernible in the giving of a Saviour, justice vindi-
cates the honour of government by punishing some,
mercy displays the benefit of government by pardon-
ing others, and royal prerogative both disculpates and
elevates the guilty. However, as the govemour is a
God, he retains and displays his absolute right of dis-
pensing his favours as he pleases. A second says,
God and believers are to be considered in the light of
parent and children, and Christ is not given to be-
lievers according to mere maxims of exact govern-
ment ; but he is bestowed by God, the common Fa-
ther, impartially on all his children. A third says,
God and believers are to be considered in the light
of master and servants, and God rewards the imper-
fect services of his creatures with the rich benefits of
Christianity. A fourth considers God and believers
in the relation of king and consort, and says, God
gave Christianity as an inalienable dowry to his chosen

AND TOLERATION. 131

associate. In all these systems, God, Christ, believ-
ers, and gift, remain the pure, genuine ideas of the
text ; and the association of the idea of relation dis-
tinguishes and varies the systems.

In general, we form ideas of the Supreme Being,
and we think such a being ought to act so and so,
and therefore we conclude he does act so and so.
God gives Christ to believers conditionally, says one ;
for so it becomes a holy being to bestow all his gifts.
God gives Christ unconditionally, says another ; for
so it becomes a merciful being to bestow his gifts on
the miserable. I repeat it again, opposite as these
may appear, they both retain the notions of the same
God, the same Jesus, the same believers, the same
giving ; but an idea concerning the fittest way of be-
stoiving the gift distinguishes and varies the systems.
I call it the same giving, because all divines, even
they, who go most into a scheme of conditional sal-
vation, allow, that Christ is a blessing, infinitely be-
yond all that is due to the conditions, which they
perform in order to their enjoyment of him.

Let us for a moment suppose, that this proposition,
God gives Christ to believers, is the whole of revela-
tion on this subject. A divine, who should affirm,
that his ideas of time, relation, and condition, were
necessarily contained in this scripture ; that his whole
thesis was a doctrine of Christianity ; and that the
belief of it was essential to salvation, would affirm the
most palpable absurdities ; for, although the proposi-

132 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

tion does say, Christ is God's gift to believers, yet it
does neither say, when God bestowed this gift, nor
why he bestowed it, nor that a precise knowledge of
the mode of donation is essentially requisite to salva-
tion. That God gave the world a Saviour in the per-
son of Jesus, is a fact affirmed by Christ in this propo-
sition, and therefore a christian doctrine. That he
made the donation absolutely or conditionally, before
the fall or after it, reversibly or irrevocably, the prop-
osition doth not affirm ; and therefore every proposi-
tion including any of these ideas is an article of be-
lief containing a christian doctrine and a human
explication, and consequently it lies before an exami-
ner in different degrees of evidence and importance.

Suppose a man were required to believe this prop-
osition, God gave Jesus to believers absolutely ; or
this, God gave Jesus to believers conditionally ; it is
not impossible, the whole proposition might be proved
original, genuine, primary doctrine of Jesus Christ.
Our proposition in this text could not prove it, and
were this the whole of our information on this article,
conditionality and unconditionally would be human
explications ; but, if Christ have given us in any other
part of revelation, more instruction on the subject ;
if he any where affirm, either that he was given on
certain conditions to be performed by believers, or
that he was not given so, then indeed we might asso-
ciate the ideas of one text with those of another, and
so form of the whole a genuine christian doctrine.

AND TOLERATION. 133

When we have thus selected the instructions of
our divine Master from the opinions of our fellow-
pupils, we should suppose, these questions would
naturally arise ; — Is a belief of all the doctrines of
Christ essential to salvation ? If not, which are the
essential truths ? If the parable of the talents be al-
lowed a part of his doctrine, and if the doctrine of
proportion taught in that parable be true, it should
seem, the belief of christian doctrines must be pro-
portioned to exterior evidence and interior ability ;
and, on these principles, should a congregation of five
hundred christians put these questions, they must re-
ceive five hundred different answers. Who is suffi-
cient for these things ? Let us renounce our inclina-
tion to damn our fellow-creatures. Let us excite all
to faith and repentance, and let us leave the decision
of their destiny to Almighty God. When Christ
cometh, he will tell us all things. Till then let us wait,
lest we should scatter firebrands, arrows, and death,
and make the hearts of the righteous sad, whom the
Lord hath not made sad. How many doctrines are
essential to salvation, seems to me exactly such a
question, as — how much food is essential to animal
life ?

We will venture to go a step further. Were we
as capable of determining the exact ratio between
any particular mind and a given number of ideas, as
we are of determiningjiow many feet of water a vessel
of a given burden must draw ; and were we able so to
12

134 CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

determine how much faith in how many doctrines
was essential to the holiness, and so to the happiness
of such a soul ; we should not then entertain a vain
notion of exacting by force these rights of God of
his creature. For, first, the same proportion, which
renders a certain number of ideas essential to the
happiness of an intelligent mind, renders this number
of ideas so clear, that they establish themselves and
need no imposition. Secondly ; the nature of faith
does not admit of imposition ; it signifies nothing to
say, kings command it ; if angels commanded it, they
would require an impossibility, and exact that of me,
which they themselves could not perform. Thirdly ;
God has appointed no means to enforce belief ; he
has nominated no vicegerents to do this ; he has ex-
pressly forbidden the attempt. Fourthly; the means,
that one man must employ to impose his creed on
another, are all nefarious, and damn a sinner to make
a saint. Fifthly ; imposition of human creeds has
produced so much mischief in the world, so many
divisions among christians, and so many execrable
actions, attended with no one good end to religion,
that the repetition of this crime would argue a soul
infested with the grossest ignorance, or the most stub-
born obstinacy imaginable. Sixthly ; dominion over
conscience is that part of God's empire of which he
is most jealous. The imposition of a human creed
is a third action, and before any man can perform it,
he must do two other exploits ; he must usurp the
throne, and claim the slave. How many more rea-

AND TOLERATION. 135

sons might be added ! From a cool examination of
the nature of God, the nature of man, the nature of
Christianity, the nature of all powers within the com-
pass of human thought to employ, the history of past
times, the state of the present, in a word, of every
idea, that belongs to the imposition of a human creed,
we venture to affirm, the attempt is irrational, unscrip-
tural, impracticable, impossible. Creed is belief, and
the production of belief by penal sanctions neither is,
nor was, nor is to come. The project never entered
the mind of a professor of any science, except that
of theology. It is high time, theologists should ex-
plode it. The glorious pretence of establishing by
force implicit belief, should be left to the little tyrant
of a country school ; let hirn lay down dry documents,
gird false rules close about other men's sons, lash do-
cility into vanity, stupidity, or madness, and justify
his violence by spluttering, Sic volo, sicjubeo, stat pro
rati one voluntas.

Were christians sincere in their professions of mod-
eration, candour, and love, they would settle this
preliminary article of imposition ; and, this given up,
there would be nothing else to dispute. Our objec-
tions lie neither against surplice nor service-book ;
but against the imposition of them. Let one party of
christians worship God as their consciences direct ;
but let other parties forfeit nothing for doing the same.
It may appear conjectural, but it is sincerely true,
theological war is the most futile and expensive contest,
theological peace the cheapest acquisition in the world.

136

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY.

Although the distinction of a divine revelation from
a human explication is just and necessary ; although
the principles of analogy, proportion, and perfection
are undeniahle j and although, considered as a theory,
the nature and necessity of universal toleration will
be allowed to be as clear and demonstrative as possi-
ble, yet we are well aware, the allowance of these
articles in all their fair, just, necessary consequences
would be so inimical to many dispositions, and so
eil'ectually subversive of so many selfish, interested
systems, that we entertain no hopes of ever seeing the
theory generally reduced to practice. Heaven may
exhibit a scene of universal love, and it is glorious to
Christianity to propose it ; it is an idea replete with
extatie joy, and, thanks be to God, it is more than an
idea, it is a law in many christian churches, alas !
little known, and less imitated by the rest of their
brethren. There is a remnant of Jacob in the midst
of many people, as a dew from the Lord, as the show-
ers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor
waiteth for the sons of men. These may cheerfully
adopt the Prophet's exultation, Rejoice not against
me, O mine enemy ! If I fall, I shall arise; when I
sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me ;
he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold
his righteousness. In the day that my ivalls are to
be built, in that day shall human decrees concerning
conscience be far removed.

HINTS

CONCERNING THE

INSTITUTION AND DISCIPLINE

OF THE

PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

FROM AN ORDINATION SERMON.

Much hath been written on the discipline of the
primitive church ; but it is highly credible, it orig-
inated in some very plain fact, some very simple
cause suited to the character of Jesus, and the con-
dition of his disciples. If a cause adequate to all
the effects be assigned, more would be redundant
and ostentatious. Consider what I shall say on the
subject, not as an investigation of it, nor as a reflection
on others, nor as an oracle to you, but merely as a
sketch of the first principles of a subject, which would
fill many volumes ; principles, not now to be disputed,
but merely stated ; principles, however, of real action,
and tending to nothing but peace and virtue.

The discipline of the primitive churches was not
taken from the economy of Moses. That economy
was fastened to a place, confined within a given
12*

lob PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

period of time, and exhibited sensible objects to the
worshippers. The late learned prelate, Bishop
Warburton, in his life of the emperor Julian, hath
clearly proved that the total subversion of the Mosaical
dispensation was essential to the very being of the
christian economy. As a theory, this is granted by
all. In practice the case differs. Some christians in
early times lost sight of this sound original maxim,
and, unhappily, incorporated the discipline of the
temple into the religion of Jesus, and on this mistake
the Roman church is built. Hence the return of
christians back into the bondage of infancy, regulated
by meats, and days, and first elements of erudition.
Hence a ritual, a pontiff, and a priesthood. Hence
holy wars, and the defence of the faith by the sword
of civil government. Hence a thousand institutes,
all alien from the spirit of him, who said, Behold, I
create new heavens, and a new earth. They shall not
hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.

The primitive discipline was not taken from the
synagogue. Synagogues were a sort of oratories
resembling our meeting-houses, chapels, or parish-
churches, erected not for sacrifice, which was con-
fined to the temple, but merely for purposes of de-
votion, and its appendage, instruction. It should
seem, for reasons not now necessary to be mentioned,
these houses were first erected at the return of
the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, when the
condition of the people made such places necessary.

PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 139

In Babylon they had lost the language in which their
Scriptures were written, and it was necessary to rem-
edy this inconvenience by glossing the text when it
was read to the people, that they might not lose the
sense in a confusion of terms. Here, on Sabbath
days, the people assembled to pray, and to g;ve and
receive instruction by reading the holy Scriptures and
expounding the sense. Order rendered rules neces-
sary, and rules ripened into laws. In time these laws
formed a system of parochial government ; so I think
I may venture to call the jurisprudence of the syna-
agogue. Many learned men have supposed that
primitive christians adopted this discipline, and regu-
lated their social worship by it. Probably some did
so ; but it should seem they were Jews influenced by
prejudices of education, and who, having only a slight
knowledge of Christianity, incorporated with it max-
ims of a polity not adapted to the views of their
divine master ; for it would be easy to prove that the
discipline of the synagogue was penal, practicable
only in an assembly of rulers and subjects, and of
course not fitted to a society of equals, which was
the condition of the primitive church, as will be ob-
served presently. Some have supposed, the Lord
Jesus intended to recommend this discipline by his
advice in case of trespass, recorded in the xviii
of Matthew ; but that learned foreign lawyer, Pro-
fessor Boehmer (let it not offend if wTe add, the best
modern writer on this subject) hath elucidated the

140 PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

text, and proved beyond contradiction, that the reli-
gion of Jesus did not, in its primitive institution,
admit of any civil coercion, and consequently that its
discipline was not that of the synagogue, which did.

The primitive discipline was not formally instituted
by Jesus Christ. In vain we search for it in any of
his public discourses, or private conversations. The
Jews differed in speculations, but their rites were
uniform, because their legislator had with precision
adjusted every thing. But what chapter of the life
of Jesus can any church produce, and say, here is
our ritual ; this is our order ; these are the institutes
of our discipline ; this verse tells us how to admit a
member ; that how to elect an elder, a deacon, or a
teacher ; here we are told how to form a society ;
there how to preserve it ; and in case of dissolution,
this instructs us how to separate, or how to reassem-
ble ? On these subjects the wise master of our
assemblies said nothing.

Finally, the discipline of the christian church was
not expressly appointed by the Apostles. In the
present view, the apostolical writings may be con-
veniently classed under four heads. Some are pro-
phetical ; as the Revelation of John, some paragraphs
in the writings of Paul, and some detached verses of
others. A second class are historical; as the Acts of
the Apostles, and in the Epistles many incidental
names, dates, places, persons, and events Prophecy
affords no rules of discipline ; history furnishes prece-

PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 141

dents, but precedents however, which are law only to
such as are in circumstances similar to those of the per-
sons mentioned by the historians. The third class may
be called expository of the christian doctrine, as the
Epistle to the Hebrews written for the Jews, and the
Epistles to the Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, and
others, written for the Gentiles, or, to speak more
properly, for societies composed of both Jews and
Gentiles. Discipline here is an occasional subject,
and it is chiefly applicable to the then state of the
societies. In a similar state christians may adopt
these prudential maxims, the end of all which is
peace, peace. The last class consists of moral pre-
cepts adapted to the conditions of individuals. Is
Timothy an overseer ? He must be blameless. Is
Paul aged ? His advice ought to be respected. Are
you a husband ? Be kind. Are you a master ?
Be just and humane. Are you a servant ? Be con-
tent with providence, diligent in business, and rever-
ence your master. Are you a member of the chris-
tian body of believers ? Imitate Jesus your pattern,
and love your brethren. Nothing of all this can be
called a christian ritual ; and advice to a church, like
advice to a wife, presupposes a state regulated by
rules not mentioned by the adviser ; and indeed the
Apostles no more drew up a discipline, than they
did a ritual for the hiring of servants, or the cele-
bration of marriage.

14 2 PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

What then ! Did Jesus leave this important arti-
cle unsettled ? No. On the contrary, he finished it
by an effort of wisdom truly divine. The Christian
discipline rose of itself out of that condition of equal-
ity, into which Jesus put his disciples. He took
twelve men of even rank, and perhaps with little dis-
similitude of age and ability, and constituted them a
family of love, or, if you will, a circle of friends.
They were his whole church. Here was no master,
no servant ; no priest, no people ; no prince, no sub-
ject ; no father, no son. It was not the union of a
literal family like that of the temple ; or of a district
like that of the synagogue ; or of a vague multitude
like that which attended the preaching of Christ ; or
of an universal body under the direction of universal
itinerants, immediately inspired, as the churches were
after his decease in the times of the Apostles ; but
it was a state of the perfect equality of minds united
by mutual benevolence.

What is discipline ? Order. What was primitive
discipline ? Order without government, and above
the want of it. In this exuberant soil of peace and
freedom the human understanding unfolds itself in
free inquiry, free from the frost of nipping penalties.
The heart mellows into ripeness. Fear of God and
love of his creatures, reverence for the first great
cause and attachment to his image, meekness, gen-
tleness, goodness, and devotion, form a fragrant com-
pound of delicious taste ; or, to use the language of

PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 143

Solomon, it is the sweetness of friendship, which, like
ointment and perfume, rejoices the heart. It is not the
fabric, however ornamented, it is this moral excel-
lence, that excites the exclamations of christians ;
and this in many a mean place hath impelled them to
look upward and sing ; Lord, I love the habitation of
thine house, the place where thine honour dwelleth.

Jesus left civil society untouched, and there rank
and government are necessary ; but it is a fact that
primitive christian societies were small, independent
bodies of equals. Many ecclesiastical historians have
observed this, and have remarked that the first chris-
tians never elected officers because they had no right
to teach or to baptize, but because they had not all
either ability or opportunity to officiate. Even
women taught and baptized, but order required them
to officiate only to their own sex, and therefore the
first churches appointed them deaconesses. In large
churches they were numerous ; they sat in public in
a seat by themselves, and they were distinguished in
the middle age by a small, grave ornament on the
neck. The form of ordaining these female officers
may be seen in the menologies of the Greek church.
In the primitive church, order required a society of
friends to visit and relieve each other, and, expedi-
tion being necessary in many cases, it was found ad-
visable to elect a few to receive and distribute relief,
to comfort the sick, to inspect the condition of pris-
oners, to try to procure their enlargement, and, in

144 PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

brief, to manage their secular affairs, as well as to
wait on the rest at the administration of the Lord's
supper and baptism. In our small societies deacons
execute these friendly offices without neglect to their
worldly employments ; but in large primitive church-
es, as the office took up the whole time of a deacon,
justice required an indemnity, not to say a reward,
and the church wholly supported their deacons.

Hence in time, in declining churches, when the
teachers had risen into a priesthood, they associated
deacons into their order. In the middle of the third
century, it should seem, by comparing a letter of Cyp-
rian with another of Cornelius of Rome, and a pas-
sage in Optatus, there were in Rome at that time
forty-four christian congregations in the Catholic con-
nexion ; and in these churches there were on the
list no less than fifteen hundred widows, sick, poor,
and other objects of charity, wholly dependant on the
liberality of the church. To the honour of the church,
they were all supported ; and deacons, who had so
much employment, were honourably maintained as
justice required. Such equity ought to prevail in all
our modern offices ; and a church that requires the
whole time of an officer, deacon, or teacher, ought
to support him ; and an election to such an office,
not including an election to a maintenance, is not
just.

THE

SPIRIT OF GOD
THE GUIDE OF GOOD MEN

FROM THE VILLAGE DISCOURSES.

[To understand the force and appropriateness of
many parts of Robinson's Village Discourses and
Morning Exercises, it is necessary to keep in mind,
that they were delivered in different places, sometimes
in a private dwelling, an open field, or an orchard ;
and, also, at different times of the day, sometimes early
in the morning, and at others in the evening. It
seems to have been the speaker's chief purpose to
render his discourses simple and perspicuous, and
adapted to the uncultivated minds of his hearers, who
were labourers, living at a distance from the stated
place of worsiiip, and indifferently instructed in re-
ligion. Occasional omissions in the articles selected
from the Discourses and Exercises are indicated by
asterisks.]

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the soils
of God. Romans, viii. 14.

The old prophets had a spirit of prophecy, and a
spirit of holiness ; that is, they had the Spirit of God;
they knew a little of those future events, which God
13

146

THE SPIRIT OF GOD

perfectly understood, and which little he imparted to
them ; and they possessed a little degree of such
justice and goodness as God possesses in infinite per-
fection. Jesus Christ is a new character, having the
Spirit of God without measure, possessing wisdom,
justice, goodness, and every excellence in unlimited
variety, and in absolute perfection. What did Jesus
Christ with this fulness of the Spirit of God ? He
communicated it to his disciples, and so sent them
even as his Father sent him, saying, receive ye the
Holy Ghost. Christ did not communicate to them,
for they were not capable of receiving it, all the
Spirit of God that dwelt in him ; but he communi-
cated it in part, therefore they knew in part, and
prophesied in part. When they were children, they
thought and spoke as children ; but when they
became men, they put away childish things. The
question is, what did Jesus communicate to his Apos-
tles for the Holy Ghost ? This question is properly
answered by distinguishing extraordinary powers,
peculiar to themselves, and necessary to obtain a
hearing of their doctrine in the world, from ordinary
communications common to them and to all other
good men to the end of the world.

When Christ came into the world, and conde-
scended to ask a distracted race of men to give him
a hearing, what glorious reasons did he stoop to
bestow I He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he
fed the multitude, he empowered his Apostles to

THE GUIDE OF GOOD MEN. 147

speak with clivers tongues, and to perform many
miracles, all for the good of society, all to convince
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
During the life of Christ he communicated to his
Apostles his own ideas of things, what notion he had
©f God, what of scripture, what of a future state ; and
his wisdom made them wise. He imparted to them
his own just and gentle tempers, and through his
goodness they hecame good. He communicated to
them proper actions, and by seeing how he conducted
himself, they learned how to behave themselves. These
communications, ordinary and extraordinary, are
what one of them calls, a receiving out of his ful-
ness grace for grace.

Before Jesus Christ left the world, he promised
the Apostles to supply his absence, after he should
have left them, by another Comforter, even the spirit
of truth, which, saith he, ye know, for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you ; that is, the truths
you know now shall be increased and multiplied, and
you shall know them better, and more to your com-
fort, after my death than you have done before. After
his resurrection, as he had promised, he saw them
again ; and while he was eating with them, he com-
manded them that they should not go out of town,
but wait at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father,
which, said he, ye have heard of me ; for ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Accordingly about forty days after his death, and a

14S THE SPIRIT OF COD

few days after his ascension, they received the Holy
Ghost in a rich abundance both of ordinary and ex-
traordinary powers, the first in a very high degree of
excellence, and the last in a manner peculiar to them-
selves. The Apostles had these powers in trust to
communicate to others, and they executed the trust
faithfully by imparting their extraordinary knowledge
how to heal the sick, and how to speak with tongues,
to some others, and this knowledge ceased when
these extraordinary men died ; but such ideas as
were necessary for the salvation of ordinary Chris-
tians to the end of the world they left in writing, and
so bequeathed as it were to posterity that Holy
Spirit, which they had received of their divine Master
for the use of all mankind.

Thus the history of the Holy Ghost stands in
Scripture divided into three periods ; the first, from
Adam to Christ, was a Holy Spirit of prophecy ; the
second, in the life of Christ, was a Holy Spirit of.
prophecy, information, and promise, accompanied
with wisdom to know how to work miracles, and
power to give it effect ; the third, from Pentecost to
the moment in which the apostle John wrote the last
line of his gospel, was a holy dispensation of wisdom,
goodness, and power, partly proper to that age and
ceasing with it, and partly containing intelligence to
inform and direct religion to the end of time. * * *

Having thus seen the rise and the accomplishment
of the promise of an universal religion under the ad-

THE GUIDE OF GOOD MEN. 149

ministration of Jesus Christ, and having got posses-
sion of the book that contains the whole of that reli-
gion, let us proceed to examine the book, and partic-
ularly with a view to the Holy Spirit, and his influ-
ence in religion ; for as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. To give you at
once my notion of the subject, I think our Apostle
took his idea of the christian church being led by
the Spirit, from that favourite part of the history of
his country so often mentioned #1 the writings of the
prophets, and so faithfully recorded by their first
historian Moses, I mean God's leading the Israelites
through the wilderness into the land of promise.
Sometimes it is said simply, God led them through
the wilderness. Sometimes it is said, the Holy Spirit
led them by the right hand of Moses. Sometimes
they are said to be led with a cloud, and with a light
of fire ; and in this manner the wise men of the east
were led by a star to Jesus Christ. God in all these
cases made use of means, and the work was no less
his for using means to effect his purpose. In this
manner I suppose the Holy Spirit by the Scriptures
guides all good men. The cloud was not in the
Israelites, nor was the star in the wise men ; but
there was in them a knowledge of the use and intent
of these appearances, and a conformity of action to
their own ideas.

Here then two things rise to view in our subject ;
a guide without us, and a disposition within us ; and
13*

150 THE SPIRIT OF GOD

the last seems to me to be an effect of the first, and
both the work of one and the same spirit. Sup-
pose a world without a Bible, and you have no idea
of any Spirit of God as a spirit of religion in the
inhabitants of it. Suppose, on the other hand, a Bible
in a world without an inhabitant, and you have no
notion of influence ; the Spirit of God is there, but
nothing knows or worships him ; the earth is without
form and void, and darkness is upon the face of the
deep. If God calls for light, it will come ; if for
land and water, they will appear ; if for the sun and
moon, and stars, they will be ; if for fish, and fowl,
and beasts, they will appear ; but there will be no
religion till man comes, nor then any revealed reli-
gion till the book and the man meet, and then the
child of God will be led by the Spirit of God. My
supposition is a fact. The Bible lies about in many
parts of the world without readers, and there lies all
our holy religion like Jesus dead in the sepulchre.
There are, on the contrary, many places where the
Bible is read ; but it is not among men, but mere
animals, who eat and drink, and marry and give in
marriage, and buy and sell, and build and plant, and
are so full of these ideas, that they never attend to
religious truth, before death comes and destroys them
all. So it was in the days of JYoah, so it was also in
the days of the Son of Man, and so it will be to the
end of the world. In a word, there is no magic in
the Bible to operate without reason and conscience ;

THE GUIDE Of GOOD MEN. 151

and there is no religion in man without revelation.
If we lay aside the Scriptures we have no standard
to judge by, and if we have no judgment the standard
is of no use.

Let us apply these general observations to partic-
ular cases, in order to understand how the Spirit of
God leads all good men. We have determined, that
it is by means of scripture truths, and that it implies
the exercise of some dispositions in us. I am aware
of the questions you will ask, and I only defer stating
the question till it comes properly before us, as it
will presently by supposing a case, which is not a
mere supposition, because it comes to pass every
day. Suppose a man, who had never thought of
religion, to lose by death the first of all earthly
pleasures, the agreeable partner of his life, or, as a
prophet calls his wife, the desire of his eyes. O
dreadful calamity, sound fit to raise the dead ! Son
of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of
thine eyes with a stroke ! I spake unto the people in
the morning, and at even my wife died. Awhile the
man, thunderstruck, can hardly believe it true, and
hopes against hope, till time, cruel time, kills his
hope, and drives him to despair. The more he
thinks, the more occasion he sees for grief. Every
thing he sees pierces him to the heart ; and in every
place a lovely picture of her that was, and the ghastly
features of her that is no more, meet his eyes, and
melt down all his soul in wo. The sun does not

152 THE SPIRIT OF GOD

shine, the stars do not sparkle, the flowers do not
scent, the world does not look as it used to do ; the
world seems dead, his house is a tomb, and all his
domestics dreary ghosts. Now he feels the vanity of
the world, takes ..up his Bible, perhaps to look after
the desire of his eyes, and try whether he can find
any thing in her present state to assuage his pain.
This man hath religion to seek, and it is indifferent
which end of the Bible he begins at ; either will lead
him right. If with the prophets, they will hand him
on from one to another, till they conduct him down-
ward to Christ ; if with the Apostles, they will direct
him upward to the same person, who is a light to
lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of the people of
Israel.

This man, thus led to Christ, will be instructed by
reading his sermons, by observing his actions, and by
examining how his Apostles understood and explained
his meaning, by applying it to several cases both of
individuals and collective bodies, which fell out after
his death, and during their inspiration ; and perceiv-
ing the truth and beauty of all this, and finding a
satisfaction in it calming his mind and producing in
him a pleasure never experienced before, he will
become a convert to the christian religion, and choose
to make the truths of it the rules of his action, and
the ground of his hope. This man is led step by
step to a moment in life, in which he becomes a new
man ; rises, as it were, from the dead into newness of

THE GUIDE OF GOOD MEN. 153

life. * * * He hath always been a child asleep in the
bosom of his father, and when he woke he found
himself in his arms. Call in now all the means used
to lead this man to the spot where he now is, and
examine, which of them made this man a christian ?
Was it any one of your Prophets or Apostles ? We
brought indeed the message which we heard of God,
and declared unto him ; but we were not acquainted
with him till lately ; he had, when we found him,
eyes to read, ears to hear, and understanding to
judge, a conscience to reprove, and he was in a con-
dition neither melancholy nor mad, but disposed to
make use of them. In a word, there is a chain of
events, one of which brings on another, and of all
which God is the first cause ; and if you can suppose
the life of the man just now mentioned to consist of a
chain of five thousand events, and that three thousand
and fifty came to pass before he touched the holy
Scriptures, and that his reading them was the three
thousand and fifty-first event, I should call three
thousand and fifty, acts of God as the God of nature,
the three thousand and fifty-first an act of God as the
God of grace ; and thoiigh I should think him led all
along before by the same God, yet I should from that
moment date his being led by the Spirit of God, as a
spirit of truth and holiness revealing himself in scrip-
ture as the Saviour of sinners, and in no other way.
When the Spirit of God saves a soul from death, by
converting a sinner from the error of his way, what

154 THE SPIRIT OF GOD

doth he ? Doth he create any new senses or fac-
ulties, new eyes in the body, or new powers in the
soul ? Certainly not ; for as there is no want of any
new powers, so if they were, they would not be what
Christ came to redeem, nor would they need sanc-
tification. The whole work of the Spirit seems to
me to consist in two things ; the one, a proposing of
the truths of religion, and this is done in the holy
Scriptures ; the other, a disposing of the mind to ad-
mit the truth, and this is done by means of various
sorts, by prosperity, by adversity, by education, by
conversation, by sickness, and by a thousand other
methods, parts of a whole complicated government,
of which God is the first cause. In order to explain
the subject, or rather (it becomes me to say of such
a subject) my notion of it, I beg your attention to
three reflections of reason, scripture, and experience.
1 call it reasonable to give God as much glory for
bringing an event to pass by means, as without them ;
yea, in some sense more. I will explain myself. It
is the opinion of some christians, that the Holy
Ghost regenerates a soul immediately, that is sud-
denly, and without any thing between himself and
the soul, and they are zealous to support this idea of
regeneration for the very laudable purpose of secur-
ing all the honour of this work to God. We praise
the motive, for too much care cannot be taken to
render to God a glory so justly his due ; but we can-
not see that the work is less bis for his making use of

THE GUIDE OF GOOD MEN". 155

means to effect it ; for whose are the means but his
own ? The more means he thinks proper to use,
the more he displays his glorious perfections. In all
his other works he makes use of means. He warms
us by means of fire, he feeds us by means of bread,
he refreshes us in the day by air, and in the night by
sleep, he creates us and brings us into being hj
means of our parents, and he removes us by means
of diseases. Name, if it be possible, a single event
in the whole world brought to pass without means.
If we go from the body to the mind, still the same
wise order prevails. Our eyes distinguish colours ;
but colours are not God, but rays of light differently
disposed. Our ears distinguish sounds, but sounds
are only air. Our feelings find out hardness, soft-
ness, rough, smooth, and so on. There is not a single
thought, in all the multitude we have in our minds,
which hath not been brought thither by some means
or other. What is more, every thought is connected
with another thought, and that with another, and so
on till we are lost in the distance or the crowd.

Now, we ask, is that which God doth by means
less his doing than if it were performed without
means ? Is not the last effect as much his as the
first ? Who gave us this year a plentiful harvest ?
You say, God. You say right, because God formed
six thousand years ago sun and earth, air and water,
wheat and barley, and fixed all in such a state that
they came to you last harvest exactly in such pro-

156 THE SPIRIT OF GOD

portion as he at first appointed them. One great
argument ior the truth of the christian religion is, that
it exactly resembles the world of nature, and so
proves itself to be the work of the same God ; and
if it were not so, if religion were not like other things,
which we are sure God made, we should have no
certain rules to know, when we received a religion,
whether it were a body of truth coming from God to
make us happy, or a set of errors contrived by wicked
men to make us miserable. Did ever any man con-
ceive that the sun, or the air, or the water, or the
trees, or fish, fowl, and cattle were the invention and
production of man f Nobody ever thought so. Why ?
Because they have characters of size, shape, dura-
tion, and perfection, above all the skill and power of
man to produce. Bring forth ten thousand things
to view having the same characters of perfection in
their kind, and we instantly know the maker ; but
produce something with different characters, and the
author becomes doubtful, and it is no further probable
that he created it than as it resembles his other
works. Apply this to our subject. If God regene-
rates us by means, if he makes us wise by informing
us of truth, and good by proposing good reasons to us
for being so, then religion resembles his other works ;
but if we be wise without truth, and good without
motive, then a new work appears without the charac-
ters of his other works, and consequently without
any evidence to persuade us it is his. Thus, reason

THE GUIDE 0¥ GOOD MEN. 157

seems to plead for the truth of our notion of the work
of the Holy Spirit.

The chief objection against this account seems to
me a strong reason in favour of it. If this account
be true, say some, the work of the Spirit may be
explained and described as clearly as any other part
of religion, and we shall know what the work of the
Spirit is ; whereas we have been taught to believe
that the work is a mystery, which no man knowethr
no, not he that receiveth it ; and this notion seems
confirmed by this text, the wind bloiveth where it
Hsteth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; so
is every one that is born of the Spirit. In answer
to this, and every other objection taken from Scrip-
ture, we have proposed to make a second reflection
on the language of Scripture concerning this subject,
and we shall put the passages into two classes.

In the first, we put such as speak of this work under
figures or similitudes ; as where the Spirit is said to
be like wind, fire, water. All Scriptures of this kind
are explained by one distinction between the nature
and the effects of things. It is one thing to know the
nature of fire, and air, and water, and it is another to
know the effects they produce. No man fully knows
the first ; but the last are as clear as daylight. Is
there a man in this assembly, who doth not know,
what effect fire will produce in wood or water, and
wind in mill work, and so on ? When our Lord said,
14

158 THE SPIRIT OF GOD

Every one that is born of the Spirit is so as you,
Nicodemus, are in the wind ; he knows the effects,
and that knowledge is sufficient to direct his actions ;
my instructions are intended to make men good men,
and not philosophers. Observe, it was Nicodemus
who said, how can these things be ? And the
reproof given him by Jesus Christ would have been
improper had the subject been a mystery ; art thou a
master of Israel and knoivest not these things. We
speak that we do know and testify that we have seen.
The subject of their conversation was not the nature
of the Spirit, but his influences in religion. Now,
said our Lord, the religion I teach is spiritual, it doth
not stand like yours in meats and drinks, and divers
washings, and carnal ordinances imposed until the
time of reformation for the purifying of the flesh, but
in effects upon the mind and heart ; you see no tem-
ple, no priesthood, no sacrifices in my religion ; let
not this offend you ; my religion resembles the wind,
which no man ever saw, but the effects of which you
and all other men perfectly understand. The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither
it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
In this manner expound all the passages that speak
of the Spirit's work under similitudes, and you will
find no difficulty in them.

In a second class, I put all such Scriptures as de-
scribe the work of the Spirit. The apostle Peter had

THE GUIDE OF GOOD MEN. 159

seen a great deal of this work, and one day of his
life, such a day as that in which three thousand souls
were added, produced more and better experiments
than ordinary teachers have an opportunity of seeing
in their whole life. He saw religion in every form,
and examined single conversions, separately and
alone, and his whole life was a course of experiments,
a part of which are recorded in Acts j and we have
reason to believe, though we have no account of the
twenty-four last years of his life in Scripture, that he
continued to old age in the exercise of instructing
and converting mankind, or, as our Lord call? it;
feeding the lambs and the sheep of Christ. The tes-
timony of such a man is extremely respectable. It
is a testimony of inspiration explained and confirmed
by experiment. Now he says, that the strangers
scattered throughout Pontus, and other countries,
who were elect through sanctification of the Spirit,
were horn again of incorruptible seed by the word of
God, ivhich word by the Gospel was preached unto
them. This account of regeneration is partly literal,
and partly figurative. The Gospel is the word of
God ; the Gospel was preached unto you. These
are literally true. The Gospel containing the word
of God which was preached unto you is an incorrup-
tible seed, of which you were born again ; these are
figurative expressions, and must be expounded by the
literal terms, and clearly mean a dependence of the
three excellencies that constitute a regenerate man

ICO THE SPIRIT OF GOD

on the three principal parts of religion, in which they
hacl been instructed.

The Gospel proposes a set of clear truths ; Chris-
tians examine and believe these truths. The Gospel
proposes a set of motives ; Christians feel these
motives ; fear hell, desire heaven, love holiness, and
so on. The Gospel proposes a set of rules to live by;
Christians reduce these rules to practice. Christians
thus are born into a new world, having the new
■powers necessary to live in that world ; they have
new objects and new ideas ; they have new motives
and new feelings ; they have new laws and a new
life. The apostle not only saw all this in others,
but he felt all this exemplified in himself. He was in
the exercise of bis trade, casting a net into the sea,
when a person walking on the beach called to him,
and said, follow me, and I will make you a fisher of
men. This word of the Lord was like that at the
creation, let there be light ; and the history of the
rest of Peter's existence may be contained in this
word, there was light. When he afterward fell into
a swoon, and returned again to sin and to fishing, he
was begotten again, unto a lively hone, not without
means, but by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead. Here is the work, the whole ordinary
work of the Holy Spirit, but all wrought by means ;
these strangers purified their souls in obeying the
truth through the Spirit, that is, through the knowl-
edge of things reported unto them, by them that

THE GUIDE OF GOOD MEN. lul

preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down
from heaven, to enable the preachers to speak the
divers tongues of these strangers, and of all others to
whom they were sent, that so their faith might stand
on what they clearly understood. *****
This brings us to our last reflection on christian
experience. If means have no place in the christian
religion till after the production of something in the
soul containing the whole new man, then the use of
means is only to nourish and cherish this new prin-
ciple, that is to say, they are to a christian what air
and earth and moisture are to an acorn. All chris-
tians seem to act as if they thought the means ap-
pointed to produce the end, and the fitness of the
means is the support of christian action. On this
principle we educate our children, because instruc-
tion seems to us a proper method of producing in
them knowledge. On this principle we read and ex-
pound the Scriptures in public ; not that the Scrip-
tures want any expounding, to cool and attentive
minds, but because the minds of most men are not
in such a state, but blinded with prejudice, custom,
and passion, and because we know such a mind is
not prepared to attend to reason. On this princi-
ple we address the Gospel not only to the righteous
and well disposed, but also to men of a quite differ-
ent character.

One great argument in defence of our holy reli-
gion is that it is fitted not only to saints, but also to
14*

]'. J THE SPIRIT OF GOD

sinners, even to such as are in the last and most
deplorable stages of vice. If you say, God works in
the means ; tins is what we plead for ; if you affirm
on the contrary that he works immediately, then
there is no more fitness in instructing the ignorant,
and reasoning with the wicked, and expecting knowl-
edge and reformation to follow, than there would be
in planting and watering flints and pebbles, and ex-
pecting them to grow into oaks. Go further, go back
to the regeneration of any one christian in this assem-
bly, and divide yourselves into two parts. Some of
you do not know the time of your conversion ; that
is as much as to say, the work of the Spirit was so
connected with other events that one thing brought
on another till all together issued in your conversion,
for you are a sincere convert to the faith of Christ.
Others of you resemble the man supposed some time
ago, and you know what events fell out when you
became christians ; but the connexion of an effect
with a cause destroys the notion of immediate influ-
ence. One says, such a providence set me a think-
ing ; another says, such a discourse set me a repent-
ing ; a third says, such a book gave me information
that produced comfort. All of us believe, the means
of religion are highly fitted to answer their end ; and
the certainty of obtaining the end in the use of means, 1
is the sun that rules the day, and the moon that rule?
the night of life. v>sh blu*

THE GUIDE OF GOOD MEN'. 168

We cannot conclude this subject without two reflec-
tions. First, we perceive a wonderful inclination in
christians toward something in religion so sublime as
not to be understood ; whereas the true sublimity of
religion lies in its plainness, as the true excellence
and dignity of man consist in his becoming such a
plain man as Jesus Christ was. This inclination is a
remnant of the old education given this country by
monks and priests, whose majesty stood in the credu-
lousness of their followers. They made creeds, or
articles to be believed, and gave them to our forefath-
ers to say over. You do not understand them, said
they, but we do ; and, while they were doing that, the
creed-makers ran away with their houses and lands.
Let us renounce this disposition, and let us believe
nothing but what we understand.

Lastly, we observe with great pleasure that all
christians allow the Spirit of God is a Holy Spirit ;
and even they who think him hidden, think they have
no right to conclude he is where they suppose, till the
fruits of a holy life declare it. Should a man, who
had lived wickedly all his days, be intoxicated with
liquor over night and regenerated at six next morn-
ing by an immediate work of the Spirit, no christians
would believe it that day ; and should he, like Saul,
assay to join himself to the disciples, they would be
all afraid of him, and not believe that he was a dis^
ciple till some Barnabas should declare two things
unto them ; one, how the Lord had spoken to him ;

164

THE SPIRIT OF GOD, &tC.

and the other, how he had boldly preached at Da-
mascus ; till he had given substantial proofs by his
conduct that his pretensions were true and real. If
an extraordinary conversion was not credible without
proof, how much less are ordinary changes ? The
proof of proofs is laid by the Holy Spirit where it
ought to be. if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not
under the law, for the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek-
ness, temperance ; against such there is no law. Let
not a man think himself to be something when he is noth-
ing ; but let every man prove his own ivork, and then
shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in
another man.

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EASY TO BE UNDERSTOOD.

FR051 THE VILLAGE DISCOURSES.

When ye fedd, ye may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ. Ephes. iii. 4.

By Christianity, I mean that religion which Jesus
Christ taught his disciples, and which is all contain-
ed in the New Testament. Retain this observation,
for it frees the subject from many difficulties. Some
misguided christians propose a great number of
mysteries, that is, secrets to us ; such as that the
bread and wine in the Lord's supper cease to be
bread and wine, and become the flesh, and bones,
and blood of Christ ; such as that a wicked man is
inspired by the Holy Ghost to lead us to heaven
without our knowing the way ; and that these won-
ders are performed by the uttering of certain words
by a certain set of men ; and these secrets, which
nobody so much as pretends to understand, we are
required to believe. However, we have one short
answer for all mysteries of this kind $ that is, they are

J 66 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

not taught in the New Testament, and therefore they
are no parts of the christian religion.

When I affirm the christian religion is not a secret,
observe, I speak of Christianity now, and not former-
ly. Thus we free the subject from all the objections
which are made against it from many passages in the
New Testament. Christianity, say some, is often
called a mystery, or a secret ; even the text calls it
so. True ; but the same text says, Paul knew this
secret, and the Ephesians might understand what he
knew of it, if they would read what he wrote to them.
When ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in
the mystery of Christ.

Strictly speaking, the text intends only one part
of Christianity, that is, the uniting of heathens and
Jews in one religious community ; but what is affirm-
ed of this one part is equally true of the whole. True
religion had always been hid from the wisest of the
heathens; and the christian religion, which was then the
only true religion, had not been made known in other
ages to the Jews, as it was then to the Apostles ; but
Paul knew it, and he proposed to make all men see
it. I preach to make all men see. We allow, the
wisest man could never have known (for his life would
have been too short, and his faculties too much con-
fined) the true character of God ; but we affirm God
revealed, that is, made it known unto the Prophets
and Apostles by his Spirit \ and these Prophets and
Apostles have made it known to us by their writings.

EASY TO BE UNDERSTOOD. 107

When I affirm, the christian religion hath no mys-
teries now, I do not mean to say that the truths and
the duties of Christianity are not connected with other
truths and other exercises, which surpass all our
comprehension ; but I affirm, that the knowledge of
the incomprehensible parts, and the belief of what
people please to conjecture about them, though they
may be parts of our amusement, and perhaps im-
provement, are yet no parts of that religion which
God requires of us under pain of his displeasure.
Suppose I were to affirm, there is no secret in mow-
ing grass, and in making, stacking, and using hay ;
all this would be very true ; and should any one deny
this, and question me about the manner in which one
little seed produces clover, another trefoil, a third
rye-grass, and concerning the manner how all these
convey strength and spirit to horses, and milk to cows,
and fat to oxen in the winter ; I would reply, all
this is philosophy ; nothing of this is necessary to
mowing, and making, and using hay. I sanctify
this thought by applying it to religion. Every good
work produces present pleasure and future reward ;
to perforin the work, and to hope for the reward
from the known character of the Great Master we
serve, is religion ; and all before and after is only
connected with it.

What part of the christian religion is a mystery f
Divide the whole into the three natural parts, of plan,
progress, and execution : the first was before this
j owofli fi ebam xjA

168 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

world began ; the last will be after this world shall
end ; the middle partis before us now. There is no
secret in either of these parts ; but there are incom-
prehensible mysteries connected with each of them.
In regard to the first, it is impossible to be supposed,
by a man who knows any thing of God, that the
christian religion came into the world without the
Creator's knowing that such an event would take
place ; and it is impossible for such a man to imag-
ine that, after the present life, there will be no dis-
tinction made between the righteous and the wicked.
There is no mystery in these general principles ; but
we may render them extremely perplexed by rashly
agitating questions connected with them.

In regard to Christianity in this present life, every
thing in it is exceeding plain. Is the character of
Jesus Christ a secret ? Did ever any body take him
for an idle gentleman, a cruel tyrant, a deceitful
tradesman, a man of gross ignorance and turbulent
passions ? On the contrary, is it not perfectly clear
that he was the person foretold by the Prophets
of his country, who should come, himself per-
fectly wise and good, to instruct mankind in the
knowledge and worship of God ? Is the char-
acter of Scripture a secret ? Is it not perfectly
clear, that it is a wise and good book, full of
information on all the subjects that concern reli-
gion and morality ? Is it a secret that we are
mortal and must die ; or that we are depraved, and

EASY TO BE UNDERSTOOD. 100

apt to live in the omission of duty and the practice of
sin ; or that a life of sin is connected with a course of
misery, for pursuing which we deserve blame ? Is it
a secret whether God takes notice of the actions of
men, or whether he will forgive a penitent and pun-
ish the impenitent ? In a word, is the character of God
a secret in the christian religion ; and is it a myste-
ry whether he be an object worthy of our adoration
and imitation ? Were I obliged to give a short ac-
count of the christian religion, I would not say it is a
revelation of the decrees of God, or a revelation of
the resurrection of the dead, or a revelation of the
mercy of God to a repenting sinner through the mer-
it of Jesus Christ ; for though each of these be true,
yet all these are only parts of his ways ; but I would
call Christianity a revelation, or a making known of
the true and real character of God ; and I would af-
firm of the whole, and of each component part, that
it was so made known as to be free from all mystery,
in regard to the truth of the facts, and yet so connected
as to contain mysteries beyond the comprehension of
finite minds. I would affirm further, that our relig-
ion is confined to the belief and practice of only
what is revealed, and that every thing untold is a
matter of conjecture, and no part of piety towards
God and benevolence to mankind.

Take heart, then, my good brethren ; you may
understand, practise, and enjoy all this rich gift of
God to man, just as you enjoy the light of the day,
15

170

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

and refreshment by rest at night. Let no one say, I
was born in poverty, I have had no learning, I have
no friends, my days are spent in labour, and I have
no prospect except that of drawing my last breath
where I drew my first. All this may be true ; but
all this will not prevent your knowing, and practising,
and enjoying the christian religion, the founder of
which had not what the birds of the air have, where
to lay his head.

When I say all may understand it, 1 mean if their
own depravity does not prevent it. Plainly, you can-
not know it if you do not attend to it ; nor can you
know it, though you do attend, if you do not attend
to Christianity itself, but to something else put instead
of it. Let me explain myself.

One says, I cannot understand the nature and force
of religion ; and pray, is there any thing wonderful
in your ignorance ? Consider, you never read the
Scriptures ; you never ask any body to read them to
you ; you hate and persecute good men ; you sel-
dom enter a place of worship ; you keep wicked
company like yourself; you are often seen in the
practice of enormous crimes. Are you the man to
complain, I cannot understand religion? It would
be a mystery indeed, if a man who never turned his
attention to a subject, should know any thing certain
about it. We have no such mystery in all the chris-
tian religion. Christians do not live like you.

EASY TO BE UNDERSTOOD. 171

Another says, I am a very sober man, I go con-
stantly to a place of worship, and I cannot compre-
hend the christian religion. All this is very true ;
you are a sober, decent character, and regular in
your attendance on public worship ; but recollect, I
am speaking not of your body, but of your mind.
Now, it is a fact, abroad or at home, in the church
or in the barn, your attention is always taken up
with other things, and so taken up as to leave no
room for the things which belong unto your everlasting
peace. Sometimes your corn, sometimes your cattle,
sometimes taxes and rates, and sometimes your rent
and your servants' wages ; but, at all times, to live in
this present world, engrosses all your attention. You,
you resemble yon child fast asleep, without knowing
it, in the arms of a parent. God besets you behind
and before, and lays his hand upon you. It is he
that watereth the ridges of your com, and settleth
the furrows thereof ; he maketh the earth soft with
showers ; he clothes thy pastures with flocks, and
crowns the year with his goodness. It is he that
giveth thee power to get wealth, and multiplieth thy
herds and thy flocks, and thy silver and thy gold,
and all that thou hast. And you, inattentive man !
you cannot comprehend that you are under an obli-
gation to know and do the will of this generous bene-
factor. What does Christianity require of you, but to
love and serve this God ? If you do not serve him,
it is because you do not love him ; if you do not love

172 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

him, it is because you do not know him ; and if you
do not know him, it is not for the want of evidence,
but attention.

It is not only to you that I affirm this connexion
between attention and knowledge ; for if this barn
were filled with statesmen and scholars, generals and
kings, I should be allowed to say to one, Sir, you
understand intrigue; to another, Sir, you understand
war, to besiege a town, and rout an army ; to a third,
Sir, you understand law, and every branch of the
office of a conservator of the peace ; to another, Sir,
you understand languages and arts and sciences ; and
you all understand all these, because you have stud-
ied them ; but here are two things which you have
not studied, and which therefore you do not know ;
the one, how to plough, and sow, and reap, and
thresh an acre of wheat ; and the other, how to live
holily in this world, so as to live happily in the world
to come. Are you not convinced, my good brethren,
that the same circumstance, which prevents those
gentlemen from knowing how to perform the work
that you perform every day with pleasure, prevents
von from knowing the practice and the pleasure of
true Christianity ? In both cases the subject hath not
been attended to.

I go further, and venture to affirm, if religion
could be understood without attention, it would be a
misfortune ; a misfortune depriving us of many ad-
vantages and leading us to commit many crimes,

EASY TO BE UNDERSTOOD,

173

The ease with which we acquired knowledge would
sink the value of it, and darkness would have com-
munion with light.

As attention is absolutely necessary, so it is equal-
ly necessary that attention should be fixed upon the
christian religion itself, and nothing else. We hear
often of the mysteries of religion ; let us not forget
that there are mysteries of iniquity. Ignorance,
covetousness, tyranny, especially tyranny over con-
science, all wrap themselves in mystery ; but if we
incorporate any of these mysteries with the christian
religion, and attend to them, instead of distinguishing
and attending to pure Christianity, we may attend
and study, but we shall never know ; we shall be
ever learning, and never able to come to the knowl-
edge of the truth. The doctrine, manner of life, pur-
pose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecu-
tions, afflictions, and deliverances of the Apostle
Paul, were fully known, and diligently followed by
common christians ; but who ever knew the doctrine
of transubstantiation, or that of the infallibility of a
frail, sinful man ? Who of us, uninspired men,
knows the feelings of a person under the immediate
influence of the Holy Ghost? In vain we pursue
such mysteries as these ; the stronger the attention,
the greater the mortification of not being able to suc-
ceed. If one place religion in impulses, another in
new revelations, a third in a state of perfection, a
fourth in discoveries and enjoyments inconsistent
15*

174 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

with our present state, and not set before us in the
christian religion, they may well be filled with doubts
and fears, and spend life in complaining of the crook-
ed and dreary paths of religion. If, on the contrary,
we attend only to what is revealed, to believe only
wThat is reported with sufficient evidence, to practise
only what is commanded by the undoubted voice of
God ; if we seek only such pleasures and distinctions
as we are taught in Scripture to expect ; in a word,
if we wTould acquaint ourselves only with God, and
be at peace one with another, thereby good should
come unto us.

When I said, all of you might understand Christi-
anity, I meant, there was nothing in Christianity but
what might be understood if it were properly attend-
ed to, and nothing in the natural condition of any
individual (I do not say his moral state) to prevent
his attending to it. There is no capacity so mean,
no creature so forlorn, as to be beyond the reach of
the benefits conferred upon men by Jesus Christ.
You are a babe; in his Gospel there is milk for babes;
truths adapted to nourish and cherish a little, feeble
mind. You are poor ; the poor have the Gospel
preached to them ; the glad tidings of a Redeemer,
and all his benefits. You are unlearned ; but the
highway of holiness is so plain, that a ivayfaring man,
though a fool, shall not err therein. You are so
bashful, and so unused to company, that you are
necessarily deprived of the pleasure of the company

EASY TO BE UNDERSTOOD. 175

and conversation of good men ; but you have better
company than that of good men ; and you, you poor
shepherd, you will behold the heavens, the work of the
fingers of your God ; you will consider the moon and
the stars, and the Saviour and the heaven which he
hath ordained, till you cry out, What is man, that
thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou
visitest him ? And upon these subjects the tongue
of the stammerer shall be ready to speak eloquently I
The christian religion enlarges and ennobles the
mind, purifies and refines the heart, and adorns the
life ; and a christian labourer, exercising his own un-
derstanding, is a more beautiful sight than an unjust
judge in all the pomp of his office.

THE JEWS.

FROM THE MORNING EXERCISES.

Afterward shall the children of Israel fear the Lord and
his goodness in the latter days. Hosea, iii. 5.

Always when I see a Jew, I recollect a saying of
the Lord by the prophet Isaiah, thou art the seed of
Abraham, my friend ; and I find a thousand thoughts
in my mind, impelling me to my duty. I am going
this morning just to give you a sketch of a subject,
that would fill volumes, and a subject of which we
ought not to be ignorant.

First, let us inform ourselves of the general history
of this people. The father of the family was Abra-
ham. He was born in the East, of an idolatrous
family, and, at the command of God, he became the
first dissenter in the world. He quitted his country,
and went and set up the worship of one God in his
own family, and taught them to practise it. From
this man proceeded a family, which increased into
tribes, and formed a people as the stars in the heav-
en, or the sand on the seashore for multitude. Idol-
atry and immorality sometimes infected a few ; but

the jews. 177

the bulk preserved the belief of one God, and the
imitation of his perfections, inviolably for ages. They
were shepherds, and lived, imbosomed in forests and
fastnesses, a plain, frugal, laborious life, unacquainted
with the world, and unpractised in the arts and luxu-
ries of polished nations. They assembled to wor-
ship God by prayer and sacrifice at every new moon,
where the old heads of families taught morality, and
inculcated the hope excited by the promise of God,
that in one of their family, all the families of the
earth should be blessed with the knowledge of their
God and their morality. Thus read the book of
Genesis, and other scripture histories of the same
times, and without forming any romantic ideas of imi-
tation, impossible except in their circumstances, ad-
mire the history, approve the prophecy, and copy the
inoffensive purity of their lives.

When these people were in slavery in Egypt, they
were at a school in which Providence taught them, by
their own feelings, the nature and the worth of liber-
ty, both civil and religious. What noble efforts they
made to obtain it, and how God crowned their hon-
est endeavours with success under the direction of
Moses, Joshua, and the Judges, you will read in the
four books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.
When they changed their government into an absolute
monarchy, they enslaved themselves, and overwhelm-
ed their country with idolatry, immorality, and ca-
lamities of every kind. Read the prophecies with

178 THE JEW?.

the light of history of times, persons, and plaees,
which is contained in Samuel, Kings, Chronicles,
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, and you will easily dis-
cover what religion had to ohject against a tyrannical
government, an idolatrous worship, and dissolute man-
ners ; and what it had to do in bearing affliction, re-
forming worship, and cherishing hope of better times
under the direction of the expected Prince of the
house of David.

When he came, and addressed himself to the
blessing of all nations with an universal religion, some
of his countrymen put him to death ; but others
espoused his cause, wrote his history, and reasoned
to establish it, not in the form of a secular kingdom,
but in the convictions and consciences of reasonable
men. There it hath stood ever since ; and, though
the bulk of the Jews have been scattered and punish-
ed for crucifying Christ, yet by being kept a separate
people, they serve to prove the truth of the Gospel ;
and the text, with many others like it, promises that
they shall reverence the Lord in the latter dap.
The Epistle to the Hebrews lies ready for their use
at that day. I think nothing can be easier than to
apply this historical knowledge to its proper use ;
and yet some christians have got such an unwise and
wayward knack of reasoning, as to quote whatever
was among the Jews in proof of what ought to be
now; as if the economy that crucified Christ was to
restore him his character and dignity !

the jews. J 79

Remark next the customs of this people. They
serve, as their history does, to interpret Scripture.
Our text is connected with one. A part of this pro-
phecy is a drama. I will try to make you understand
me. A drama, in our present view, is a subject both
related and represented. Divines call it preaching
by signs. These signs were proper to represent to
the eye the subject spoken of to the ear. Thus
Jeremiah explained slavery with a yoke upon his
neck ; and Jesus simplicity, by setting a little child
before his disciples. * * * * *

Further, let us allow the merit of the Jews. They
deserve all the reputation, which the inspired writers
give them. They exhibit single characters of con-
summate virtue, as Abraham for faith, Moses for
meeknes, Nehemiah for love of his country, and so on.
As a nation they excelled in some periods in arms,
in others in industry, commerce, splendour, and
wealth ; and in all in good writers ; for what histo-
rians are equal to Moses and the evangelists, or what
ancient poetry breathes such pure and sublime senti-
ments as that of the Jews ? As a church they pre-
served the oracles of God, and at their fall their
remnants became the riches of the world. The
Apostle of us Gentiles was a Jew, and to say all in
one word, the Saviour and the Judge of mankind was
a Jew. Let us respect the ancient Jews in the per-
sons of their children, and for their sakes let us be
friends to universal toleration.

180 THE JEWS.

Let us recollect the sins and the calamities of
these people. Their sins were many and enormous ;
but it was the killing of Jesus Christ, that completed
their ruin. Let us examine what sins brought Jesus
to the cross, and let us avoid the practice of them.
Nor let us forget their calamities. They have been
under all the punishments foretold four thousand
years ago by Moses, and seem doomed to travel over
the world to recommend a Gospel which they reject
and despise. Their prophets, we find, did not
slander them ; they are the people described, and
their punishments prove the divine mission of their
prophets. Thus God is glorified, whether man be
lost or saved. In some future time he will be glo-
rified in us, either his mercy if we embrace it, or his
justice if we reject it ; for to reject the Gospel is to
reject both the mercy and the justice of God.

Let us finish by observing the recall of the Jews.
The prophets foretel it, and a course of events ren-
ders it probable. They are preserved a distinct peo-
ple, though the nations that conquered them are lost.
They are more numerous now than they were when
a nation. The Gospel is truth and virtue struggling
against error and vice ; it is natural to hope that
the stronger must in time subdue the weaker. Er-
ror and vice are supported by man ; but truth and
virtue by God. Let us not despair. The Jews
came out of Egypt under the conduct of a shepherd
with only a rod in his hand to point out the way.

THE JEWS. 181

Providence is at no loss for means to effect its pur-
poses ; he worketh all things after the counsel of his
oivn will.

There are four things implied in the text, which
the Jews will reverence in the latter days. First,
That divine patience, which hore with their provoca-
tions ; after they have rejected Moses and the Pro-
phets, after they have committed crimes of every
sort, after they have crucified Christ, persecuted his
Apostles, and persevered for ages in approving the
crime ; afterward shall the children of Israel rever-
ence the Lord for his patience, which outlasted all
their perverseness.

Next, they will reverence his providence, which,
when they were persecuted in one country, always
provided them an asylum in another. Providence
hath given them skill, and made them useful to many
nations. It hath prospered their industry, and
crowned it with plenty, so that their riches are almost
as proverbial as their infidelity. When Jews from all
countries, in their latter days, shall compile their own
history of the dispersion, it must needs display a
bright scene of providence, which they themselves
will reverence in those days.

Will they not always reverence the grace of God ?
The Lord will both forgive their offences, and restore
them to favour. To this we add, the glory of God,
as another object of reverence. Great and marvel-
lous displays of divine power have been made in
16

182

THE JEWS,

favour of this people formerly, and, it should seem
by the prophecies, more such displays will be made
in favour of them at their return to their first hus-
band. May God hasten it in his time.

What remains ? Only this at present. Let us
avoid putting stumblingblocks in the way of the
Jews. Let us propose Christianity to them as Jesus
proposed it to them. Instead of the modern magic
of scholastical divinity, let us lay before them their
own prophecies. Let us show them their accom-
plishment in Jesus. Let us applaud their hatred of
idolatry. Let us show them the morality of Jesus in
our lives and tempers. Let us never abridge their
civil liberty, nor ever try to force their consciences.
Let us remind them, that as Jews they are bound to
make the law of Moses the rule of their actions. Let
us try to inspire them with suspicion of rabbinical
and received traditions, and a generous love of inves-
tigating religious truth for themselves. Let us avoid
all rash judging, and leave their future state to God.
Read at your leisure the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah,
in the beginning of which Jesus Christ is described as
the Judge of the world, and the passage is explained
in that sense in the Revelation of John. It is the
judge alone, whose habit is stained with blood ; the
saints, white and clean, only follow him to behold and
applaud his justice.

COGAN'S
LETTERS TO WILBERFORCE,

ON THE DOCTRINE OF

HEREDITARY DEPRAVITY.

V-sf.

THOMAS COGAN.

Few particulars have as yet been presented to the
public concerning the long, and somewhat varied life
of Thomas Cogan. He was born in the year 1736,
at Rowell,in Northamptonshire, and was a descendant
of an old and respectable family in that place, long
devoted to the religious interests of the dissenters.
His father was an apothecary, a man of repute in his
profession, and respected for his good character and
valuable qualities. To literature and books he was
much inclined, and had a particular fondness for me-
taphysical inquiries. A few pamphlets on some of
the abstruser topics of mental philosophy, published
at different times, prove the extent of his researches,
and the industry and zeal with which he pursued
them.

With these propensities in the father, it is to be
supposed that he would feel a lively interest in the
education of his son. After being initiated into some
of the simpler rudiments of learning, young Cogan
was sent to Kibworth, in Leicestershire, and put un-

18G COGAN.

der the charge of Dr Aikin, the father of Mrs Bai-
bauld, who at that time enjoyed a high reputation as
a teacher. Dr Aikin had been a pupil of Doddridge,
and afterwards an assistant in the Theological School
of this eminent divine ; and as a scholar of refined
taste, and extensive acquisitions, he sustained an ele-
vated rank. For several years he was professor at
Warrington Academy, in conjunction with Dr Enfield
and Dr Taylor, and his lectures on the ancient clas-
sics and on theology have been applauded by his sur-
viving pupils. Gilbert Wakefield, in the memoirs of
his own life, has paid an elegant and feeling tribute
to the talents and virtues of Dr Aikin.* Under the
instructions of this able teacher and excellent man,
Cogan made rapid proficiency in the branches of
learning to which he applied himself, and he was ever
after accustomed to speak with delight of the days he
had passed at Kibworth.

At this school he remained till he was fourteen
years of age, when he returned to his father's house,
and continued at home during the two or three suc-
ceeding years. About this time he began to think of
preparing himself for the christian ministry, and with
the design of prosecuting a course of theological stu-
dies he entered the Academy at Mile End, where Dr
Conder was teacher in divinity. For some reason,
however, growing out of the management of the insti-

* Memoirs of the Life of Gilbert Wakefield, B. A. formerly Fellow
of Jesus College, Cambridge. Written by Himself. Vol. I. chap. X!

COGAN. 187

tution, Cogan soon became dissatisfied, and removed
to Hoxton Academy.

How long he remained in this seminary, or at what
time he entered the ministerial office, is not known.
In the year 1759 we find him preaching in Holland,
and it is supposed, that he acted as an assistant
preacher with Mr Snowden at Rotterdam, who was
minister of an English church founded there on the
principles of the Dutch establishment.

This station, however, he did not retain long, for
in 1762 he had returned to his own country, and was
settled over a congregation in Southampton. What
length of time he held this situation is uncertain, but
it seems that difficulties arose between him and the
people concerning some of his opinions, which ulti-
mately induced him to request a dismission. By his
parents he had been taught the principles of Calvinism,
but his subsequent inquiries shook his faith in the higher
dogmas of the Genevan creed, and he was too ingen-
uous to conceal his opinions, and had too high a sense
of his duty not to preach what he believed to be im-
portant truth. Finding the views of his congregation,
in regard to some of the abstruser points of doctrine,
not in accordance with his own, and perceiving them
troubled with suspicions of his heresy, he followed
what he thought to be the dictates of wisdom and
prudence, as well as of integrity and christian prin-
ciple, in desiring to be released from the pastoral
connexion.

17*

188

COGAN.

Being thus freed from engagements at home, he
went over again to Holland, where he filled the office
of colleague with a clergyman in a congregation com-
posed of English residents. At this period the symp-
toms of a pulmonary complaint, with which he had
been long slightly affected, began to exhibit a more
alarming aspect, and to admonish him of the danger to
which he was exposing himself by the exertions re-
quired in public speaking. In short, so much were
his apprehensions awakened by his declining health,
that he felt himself compelled to abandon a profes-
sion, which he had chosen with a profound respect
for its dignity, and sincere love of its duties, and
which he had adorned not more by his ministerial la-
bours and instructions, than by his exemplary deport-
ment and purity of life.

In looking around for a new pursuit congenial with
his inclination, and suited to his health, and one which
should afford him an honourable calling, his thoughts
were turned to the medical profession. After his
mind had become settled in this choice, he commenc-
ed his new studies with a zeal and devotedness, which
could hardly fail to ensure him success. He made a
short visit to England, where he gratified his friends
by preaching a few discourses, and then went back to
Holland, and became a regularly matriculated student
of medicine at the University of Ley den.

This celebrated institution was then at the height
of its renown, standing at the head of the medical

COGAN. 189

schools of Europe, and Cogan knew how to estimate
the advantages of his situation, and to profit by the
uncommon facilities which it afforded. He complet-
ed the usual course at Leyden, and, when he took
his degree, exhibited a Thesis on the Influence of the
Passions in causing and healing Diseases. This dis-
sertation was the basis of his future works on the
Passions, which have given him considerable fame as
a practical metaphysician and ethical philosopher.

Being thus qualified for entering on his profession,
he commenced practice in Holland, where he seems
already to have formed an extensive acquaintance,
and contracted intimate friendships. He married the
daughter of a wealthy merchant in Amsterdam, by
the name of Groen, and established himself for a
time as a practising physician in that city. Encou-
raged by his growing reputation, however, he went
over to London, where his practice became so exten-
sive and his labours so burdensome, that he found his
health gradually impaired, and he yielded again to
what he deemed the call of duty in relinquishing the
active employments of his profession. In 1780 he
went to Amsterdam, where he devoted himself to lit-
erary and philosophical studies, and to such employ-
ments as were suited to the state of his health, and
the bias of his inclination.

During his residence in London, Dr Cogan was in-
strumental in establishing the Royal Humane Society,
one of the most efficient schemes of benevolence,

190 COGAN.

which have been devised for the relief of suffering
humanity. The institution may indeed be said to
have originated with him, although it would not per-
haps have been so soon carried into actual operation,
had it not been forced onward by the zeal and un-
wearied exertions of his friend Dr Hawes. A socie-
ty was formed in Amsterdam in 1767, the object of
which was to restore to life those who were apparent-
ly dead from drowning. The frequent accidents in
that city, where water conveyance was so common,
suggested the importance of such an association, and
premiums were offered for rescuing persons, who
were in imminent danger of being drowned. The
society was successful beyond its expectations, and
statements of its proceedings and the cases of recovery
were published. These were translated into Eng-
lish by Dr Cogan, with a view to act on the public
mind in his own country, and especially to convince
the friends of humanity in London of the utility of
such an association in that metropolis.

These accounts first caught the attention of Dr
Hawes, who applied himself to the subject with an
enthusiasm and disinterestedness, which nothing could
conquer. For a time he received neither sympathy
nor aid from the public, but no discouragement could
damp the ardour with which he was moved ; he was
prodigal to profusion of every personal sacrifice of
property, time, and labour. His project was ridicul-
ed as absurd by some, and rejected as impracticable

COGAN. 191

by others. For a whole year he took the burden on
himself, and offered rewards for bringing drowned
persons to certain places, where means would be im-
mediately used for their recovery. The practicabili-
ty of resuscitation was thus proved by numerous
examples, and his success was such as to silence every
voice. After these testimonies, the force of which
was not to be turned aside by ridicule, nor speculative
objections, Dr Cogan and Dr Hawes agreed on a
time and place at which they would assemble a cer-
tain number of their friends, and consult on the proper
measures to be taken for establishing a society. The
result was the formation of the Royal Humane Socie-
ty in 1774; and, to give an adequate conception of
the utility of this society, it is enough to state, that
during the first ten years after it was formed, no less
than three thousand persons in the city of London
alone, wrere by its means rescued from a premature
death.

The Reports of the Society for the first six years
were drawn up by Dr Cogan, who was in no degree
behind his ardent coadjutor in zeal and assiduity. He
contrived instruments for taking drowned persons
quickly and uninjured out of the water, and suggest-
ed various improvements in the methods of resuscita-
tion. " Whilst he lived, Dr Cogan took a lively in-
terest in the proceedings of the Society, and, when
opportunity permitted, failed not to attend the annual
meetings, where he of all others must have been grat-

192 COGAN.

ified by the procession of the persons restored to life
by the Society's methods. By his will he bequeath-
ed to his favourite institution the sum of one hundred
pounds. The Society, as has been justly remarked,
will be a standing monument of what may be accom-
plished by individual persevering exertions in the
cause of humanity ; and will transmit the names of
Hawes and Cogan to posterity as benefactors of the
human race."* The example set by them has been
followed in almost all parts of the civilized world, and
humane societies formed on a similar plan now exist
in many of the large cities in Europe and America.

After retiring from his profession in London, Dr
Cogan lived a studious and quiet life in Holland till
the French revolution, when he resolved to quit the
continent and take up his final residence in England.
During a part of his absence he had passed his time
in travelling over Germany and the Netherlands, and
had made notes of the incidents and reflections that oc-
curred to him in his wanderings. When he returned
to England he revised his journal, and published it in
a work consisting of two volumes, entitled The Rhine.
This work is praised for the ease and simplicity of its

* See a short Memoir of Dr Cogan in the Monthly Repository, Vol.
XIV, p. 1 — 5; 74 — 76. To this article I am chiefly indebted for the
facts contained in the present brief notice. It is extremely meagre,
but nothing more extended or full, it is believed, has come before
the public. It remains for some future biographer to do justice to
the memory of a man, who has claims so strong on the gratitude of
his species, and who holds no humble rank among the wise, the
learned, and the good.

COGAN. 193

style, and the interesting manner in which the narra-
tive is put together.

He now took up his residence at Bath. Here his
attention was turned to agriculture ; he made ex-
periments in farming, and was so successful as to
gain several premiums from an Agricultural Society
to which he belonged. In these pursuits it seems to
have been his chief object to draw off his mind from
severer studies, and relax himself by an amusement,
which should be at the same time congenial with his
taste, and afford him a salutary exercise of his mental
and bodily powers. He preserved the same habits
to the end of his life ; wherever he resided he took
care to be supplied with land for agricultural experi-
ments ; and when he afterwards retired to lodgings
in London, he still kept a farm in the country to
which he frequently resorted.

While residing at Bath he published his Philoso-
phical and Ethical Treatises on the Passions. These
were received with approbation, and have been seve-
ral times republished. At the same place, also, the
celebrated Letters to Mr Wilberforce on Hereditary
Depravity made their first appearance. So popular
was this pamphlet, that it passed speedily through
several editions, and continues still to be often re-
published in England. It may be doubted, whether
the arguments against the dark scheme of Calvinism
have ever been stated with more power and spirit, or
in a form calculated to produce a more thorough con-

194 COGAN.

viction of the false foundation on which this system is
built. The letters are written in a plain, perspicuous
st)rle, the reasoning is clear and direct, and the tem-
per of the writer and tone of his sentiments afford an
admirable illustration of the principles of benevolence,
and christian love, for which he proves himself so
powerful an advocate.

Next in succession were his Theological Disqui-
sitions, in two volumes, embracing a view of the
Jewish Dispensation, and of Christianity. These are
made to harmonize with his previous Ethical Trea-
tises, and are intended with them to constitute a
general system of morals and religion, as manifested
in the character of the Deity, the nature of man, and
the truths of revelation. But his Theological Dis-
quisitions contain little that is original or striking ;
they are diffuse in style, and abound in repetitions of
the same thoughts ; and although the author's be-
nevolent spirit shines out in every part, and some
judicious reflections are scattered here and there, yet
these volumes must be allowed to be the least satis-
factory and interesting of all his writings. Dr Co-
gan's last work, the Ethical Questions, appeared in
1817, and treats chiefly of metaphysical subjects.
He published other works during his lifetime, an
entire catalogue of which may be seen in the article
referred to above in the Monthly Repository.

The author's latter years were mostly passed in
London, although, as before remarked, he occasion-

f

COGAN. 195

ally retreated to his little farm in the country. He
enjoyed his usual health, till a month before his
death, when he took a sudden cold by exposure to a
damp atmosphere, and was seized with an indisposi-
tion which never left him. For a week or two,
however, he was able to be abroad, and went to his
brother's house at Walthamstow, with a presentiment
that he should never return. From that time he
declined gradually, and expired on the 2d of Febru-
ary, ISIS, in the eighty-second year of his age. His
mind continued sound and active to the last ; he was
cheerful and tranquil, recounted with expressions of
gratitude the blessings with which his past life had
been filled up, talked much of the necessity and
benefits of death in the wise scheme of Providence,
and declared his entire readiness to meet the will of
God in submitting to the great change of death, and
to resign his spirit to that mercy and goodness, which
had through a life of many years protected and bless-
ed him.

The habitual frame of mind, which he cherished
on this subject, may be learned from a short paragraph,
which was found in manuscript among his papers,
and was intended as the concluding part of the pre-
face to a new edition of his treatise on the Christian
Dispensation. "Before this edition will see the
light," says he, " it is probable that the eyes of the
author will be closed in darkness. Should this be
the case, the following declaration may excite some
18

196 cogan.

attention to it. Its principles have afforded him
much consolation during a large portion of life ; they
have rendered advanced years placid and serene,
and enabled him to contemplate death itself, notwith-
standing its gloomy appearance, as one of the most
essential blessings in the whole plan of Providence."
No man could have better grounds for contemplating
death with security and composure than Dr Cogan ;
his life had been without reproach ; he was pious
and charitable, benevolent and humane ; in thought
and action he was moved by the genuine spirit of
Christianity ; he loved God, and praised him habitu-
ally for his goodness ; he loved man, and laboured for
nothing so much as the moral improvement and hap-
piness of his fellow-creatures.

REMARKS

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN.

COMMUNICATED TO THE EDITOR.

The design of Dr Cogan in the connected series
of disquisitions, which he gave to the world, was, as
he expresses it, " to trace the moral history of man
in his pursuits, powers, and motives of action ; and
the means of obtaining permanent wellbeing and hap-
piness." He begins, very wisely, with a careful
analysis of the passions and affections ; from the
proper exercise of which he supposes all happiness
to be derived, and in the proper regulation of which,
he supposes all virtue to consist.

It is to be regretted, that more attention has not
been paid to this subject; to the actual constitution of
the human mind, especially of its active principles,
and to the various elements, that enter into the forma-
tion of a good character. Just views on these points
would do much, it is certain, to correct many prevail-

198 REMARKS ON THE

ing errours, not only in morals, but in theology. Light
would be thrown upon the laws of scriptural interpre-
tation ; several doctrines of the Gospel, particularly
those of repentance and conversion, would receive a
more clear, satisfactory, and practical explanation ;
many of the differences, which now divide serious
and well disposed Christians, would disappear ; a
more candid and liberal spirit would discover itself in
our treatment of one another, and a more rational and
consistent, if not a warmer piety towards God. In
considering the nature and sources of some of the
most mischievous delusions, that have vexed the
church, the confused and partial conceptions, that
still prevail respecting the influence of religion on the
character, and the too common habit of representing
many things as the genuine offspring of benevolence
and piety, which originate in reality in a perverted
intellect, or a diseased state of the affections, there
is certainly nothing to which we can look with so
much hope and confidence as a remedy for these
evils, as to the improvements which have been made,
are making, and will be made, in the Philosophy of
the Human Mind.

The reputation of Dr Cogan, as a metaphysician,
must depend chiefly on his Philosophical Treatise on
the Passions. In defining, classifying, and describing
the passions, affections, and desires, which belong to
our nature, and in accounting for their almost infinite
varieties and diversities, he has discovered much

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 199

acuteness and compass of mind ; and given us pro-
bably more useful information on the subject, than can
be found any where else in the same number of pages.
He considers, that all our passions and affections may
be resolved into one principle, the love of well-
being ; even our aversions being no other than par-
ticular modifications of a desire founded on this love,
namely, a desire of being liberated from whatever ap-
pears injurious to wellbeing. Our passions and affec-
tions he divides into two classes ; those, which owe
their origin to the principle of self-love ; and those,
which are derived from the social principle. Each of
these classes he subdivides into two orders ; the first
embracing the passions and affections in which the
idea of good predominates, or is the exciting cause ;
and the second, those in which the idea of evil pre-
dominates, or is the exciting cause.

The author is a decided believer in the real exist-
ence of a benevolent principle in man, distinct from
self-love, and not a mere modification of it. He ad-
mits, indeed, as all must gladly admit, that much
pleasure and satisfaction are felt by the person him-
self, who performs a benevolent action ; but this
pleasure and satisfaction are observed to follow, or
attend, the benevolent action, and not to precede it ;
and are, therefore, to be considered rather as its re-
ward, than as its motive. There is sufficient evidence,
that a disinterested sympathy forms a part of our
moral constitution ; by which the wellbeing of others

200

REMARKS ON THE

is so connected with our own, that an interest is felt
and manifested in their happiness without any regard
at the time to its influence on ours. It is an original
law of our nature, and not the result of calculation.
Another principle is excited, and made to act ; and,
therefore, the motive prompting us to perform a bene-
volent deed is by no means to be confounded with
the motive prompting us to one purely selfish. It is
one of the finest characteristics of our author's writ-
ings, that he takes every occasion to remark upon the
derivation of our best and only permanent gratifica-
tions from the cultivation and exercise of this benevo-
lent principle. " Who can sufficiently admire that
constitution of things," he exclaims, "which has placed
the supreme happiness of man in communicating
happiness to others? Who can sufficiently despise the
grovelling soul, whose only object is self-gratification ?
And who will regret, that such a soul can never pos-
sess what it covets; that it is condemned to feed
upon husks alone, and to remain an eternal stranger
to the luxuries of benevolence !"*

In his Ethical Treatise on the Passions, founded
on the Principles investigated in the Philosophical
Treatise, it must be admitted that Dr Cogan does
not discover equal talent and discrimination ; though
it contains many ingenious remarks and happy illus-
trations, which will reward well an attentive perusal.
It is the leading doctrine of this work, that all our

* Ethiral Questions, p. 103.

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 201

passions and affections are good, and productive of
good, unless abused, that is, bestowed upon unworthy
objects, or carried to an improper extreme. The
principle of haired, for example, is a useful and ne-
cessary principle, so long as it is kept under a due
regulation ; but becomes pernicious and criminal when
abused, when an aversion is entertained for that which
is a real good, on account of some peculiar quality it
may possess, which is unpleasant to our feelings ; or,
when we suffer an aversion to exceed, in any case,
the limits which reason, justice, or humanity pre-
scribes. Exemplifications of such an abuse are easily
found by investigating the nature of envy, cruelty,
malignity. It is by these abuses and irregulari-
ties, that those passions and affections, which were
designed and adapted to be the sources and guardians
of wellbeing, both in ourselves and others, often be-
come the occasions of the most poignant misery ;
and, indeed, are the causes of all the manifold and
aggravated sufferings, which afflict humanity, with the
exception, perhaps, of some of those that result from
disease and want.

Dr Cogan considers that there is no disorder, or
irregularity of disposition or conduct, which may not
be traced to one or more of these three causes; igno-
rance, the influence of present objects, and of inor-
dinate self-love. Nay, there is a sense in which
every aberration of the passions and affections may
be ascribed to ignorance ; as the strong influence

202 REMARKS ON THE

of present objects, and the power of inordinate
self-love to lead the passions and affections astray,
lies in their effect, first to deceive and blind the un-
derstanding, leading it to misjudge the properties of
the interesting object. To guard, therefore, against
these disorders and irregularities, we are provided
with intellectual powers and the means of mental
culture, by the aid of which we may form, or cor-
rect, our judgments as to the real properties of any
object that excites our affections ; and ascertain
whether it ought, or ought not, to be pursued.

It is this, according to Dr Cogan, that makes man
a moral agent, accountable for his actions, and capa-
ble of merit or demerit. It is a beautiful picture,
which he gives us of the happiness attendant on a
life of regular and confirmed virtue. " These are
indications of an inward and deep respect for virtue,
which may exist in the breasts of those who are pre-
vented, by habits of depravity, from the practice of
it. How congenial therefore must it be to the minds
of those, who have been habituated to the practice of
virtue ; who feel its benignant influence in their
own conduct ; and who are witnesses to the peace,
order, harmony, and joy, diffused according to the
sphere of its influence ! To the pleasures arising
from the approving decisions of his judgment, from
personal advantages in the course of a virtuous con-
duct, from the esteem of the worthy, from a heart
glowing with benevolence — the man of confirmed vir-

WRITINGS OF DR C0GAN.

203

tue adds the pleasures derived from a refined and
exalted taste. He admires the beauty of right con-
duct. The symmetry derived from well ordered af-
fections is far more interesting to him, than that of
forms painted on the canvass, or chiselled out in
marble. The voice of harmony, arising from the
cheerfulness of virtuous innocence, delights his ear
more than all the melodies of music. The grandeur
of virtue, rising superiour to every misfortune or seduc-
tion, constitutes with him the true sublime ; and ex-
cites in his breast the elevated emotions of admiration
and delight to a much higher degree, than can be
produced by the majesty of nature itself I"*

The author's treatise, entitled Ethical Questions,
or Speculations on the principal Subjects of Contro-
versy in Moral Philosophy, forms a volume, as its
title intimates, which contains much questionable mat-
ter. By those, however, who agree with the author
in his speculations, it may be thought to discover as
much learning and ingenuity, as any which he has
published. He denies that human nature is endow-
ed with a Moral Sense to perceive moral principles,
in a manner analogous to the organs of sense in the
perception of external objects. All, he says, that
can be ascribed to the constitution of human na-
ture in this question, is an inherent love of wellbeing,
disposing us to approve of whatever we think to be

* Ethical Treatise on the Passions. Part II. Disquisition II. Chap
II. Sec. 2.

204 REMARKS ON THE

conducive to it, and to disapprove of whatever we
think injurious to it; the degree of our approbation
or disapprobation being, in every instance, according
to our opinion of the extent of the evil, or the malig-
nity of the design. What is called conscience, or
the moral sense, is therefore according to this writer
nothing but the reason of man, employed in judging
of human conduct with regard to its influence on well-
being ; supported in its decisions by some modifi-
cation of love or hatred, according as the action or
agent, which is the object of each particular decision,
is thought to be friendly or inimical to the order,
harmony, and happiness of the moral world. It is
however admitted, that these decisions of the mind
on moral subjects, though in all cases the result of
reasoning in the first instance, become by the power
of habit as instantaneous and direct, apparently, as
those of intuition or sensation.

Our author is the open and strenuous advocate of
the doctrine of Philosophical Necessity. He insists
upon the argument, that every act of the will must
have a cause out of itself; for even if we suppose
the will to have a power to move itself, it must still
have some inducement for every particular exertion
of this power, or the action resulting from it, so far
from being a moral action, would not even be a ra-
tional one. He rejects the idea of a liberty of choice
among motives, as this supposes the existence of
several motives at the same time, whereas, strictly

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 205

speaking, there can never be but one motive, namely,
the inducement that actually moves us. Several in-
ducements there may be, drawing different ways, but
it is only the strongest inducement at the time that
can prevail, and that must prevail. Whatever seems
at the time, in existing circumstances and in the ex-
isting state of our feelings and whole mind, most
consonant to our wellbeing, we cannot but do.

In what has been said, it is neither expected nor
desired to make a single convert to the scheme of
necessity. It is not at all surprising, that men should
be slow to receive a doctrine, one of the legitimate
inferences from which seems to be, that the charac-
ter in every instance is formed for and not by the
individual. Perhaps it may be found on a close and
careful investigation, that both the necessarian and the
libertarian are right in the main ; differing from each
other in their verbal statements only, because accus-
tomed to view the subject of moral agency under
different aspects, and to use a different language in
reporting their observations. In justice, however, to
the doctrine of philosophical necessity, it ought to be
observed that most of the objections urged against it,
on the ground of its supposed immoral tendency, have
originated in a very partial and superficial acquaint-
ance with the system.

There is still another charge, if possible, of a still
graver character against the hypothesis assumed by
Dr Cogan, which he succeeds very happily in evad-

206 REMARKS ON THE

ing. It should however be observed, that it is by a
way of escape not open to the calvinist, though he
also is pressed with the same difficulty.

" Whoever asserts," says he, " that our doctrine
leads to the honours of fatalism, takes a very imper-
fect view of the subject. The imagination may easily
extend the chain until it shall arrive at all that is
great and good. Human beings have incessantly
acted upon the grand principle of seeking happiness,
although they have so frequently and so egregiously
mistaken their way. But this is no proof that they
will always mistake their way. We daily perceive
that a conviction of errour leads to future caution.
Ignorance corrects itself, by our experience of the
evils which it produces ; and experience becomes the
most impressive instructor. Mankind must at last
form more consistent ideas of the nature of good, and
obtain a more accurate knowledge of the ways and
means to secure it, or they will continue eternal
idiots. In every step they take, they are uniformly
acting according to the laws of cause and effect ; and
although they continue to follow their own inclina-
tions, in every act they perform, these inclinations
may finally conduct them right. Repeated expe-
rience must finally correct the grossest ignorance ;
and repeated evils suffered in one course, will compel
them to pursue another, until they shall finally have
obtained wisdom to make a choice of virtue and reli-
gion as the supreme good.

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 207

" This life may be much too short for the purpose ;
but the human race have an eternity before them.
In a future state, similar principles may operate in a
similar manner, until the whole intellectual creation
shall become reclaimed and happy. Whoever has
an existence, must inevitably desire his own happi-
ness, wherever he exists ; and he will pursue it by
every method in his power; and as, wherever he
may be, he will continue under the inspection of the
universal Father, whose wisdom is equal to his power,
and whose goodness is equal to both, the continued
and extended operation of cause and effect may lead
to an ultimatum devoutly to be wished, universal hap-
piness."*

The author's views of Moral Obligation partake
largely of the peculiarities of the same school. He
conceives that this also may be resolved into that
love of wellbeing, which is the spring of every affec-
tion, desire, and motive in man. Man is obliged, by
his very nature, to pursue whatever he perceives to
be conducive to his permanent wellbeing ; but his
powers of discernment, unless obscured by ignorance,
or perverted by the undue influence of present ob-
jects and inordinate self-love, must enable him to
perceive, that duty and virtue are conducive to his
permanent wellbeing ; consequently his very nature,
considering him as a rational and intelligent agent
actuated by a supreme desire of good, must make

* Ethical Questions, pp. 16S, 169, 170.
19

~0S REMARKS ON THE

the practice of duty and virtue universally obligatory,
" It is here," he observes, " that the mighty difference
between rationality and irrationality consists. The
enjoyment of this good is the basis of self-interest ; to
diffuse it, is the soul of benevolence ; every thing is
fit and right, that promotes it to the greatest extent ;
every thing is wrong which impedes or destroys it.
The intrinsic value of prudence, discretion, justice,
kindness, and humanity, proceeds from their benig-
nant influence upon happiness ; the deformity of vice
consists in its fiendlike malignity. It is the expecta-
tion of good, which creates submission to human
laws ; and it is good, which assembles every motive
of self-interest, and every sentiment of love and grati-
tude around the throne of the great source of
good !"*

We notice next in order, in the series of Dr Co-
gan's works, his Theological Disquisitions, or an
Enquiry into those Principles of Religion, which are
most influential in directing and regulating the Pas-
sions and Affections of the Mind. His remarks on
Natural Religion are brief and sometimes unsatisfac-
tory ; but they always breathe a noble spirit, and are
highly characteristic, not less of the writer's amiable
disposition, than of his peculiar philosophy. The
following extract will enable one to form some idea
of the manner in which he treats the subject, as well
as of the conclusions to which he is conducted.

* Ethical Questions, pp. 391, 392.

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 209

11 Although to will, to plan, to execute, be equal
and instantaneous, respecting the divine mind, yet in
the order of our conceptions, the Goodness of God
prompting him to create, is the first attribute that
presents itself. The next is that of boundless Know-
ledge, by which he discerns effects in their causes,
and every possible result from every possible energy.
From such sources Wisdom is enabled to form its
plans of extensive good, and to establish those laws,
by which life shall be diffused, and its enjoyments
multiplied; that Wisdom which has devised and con-
stituted such a diversity of powers and properties in
the material and inanimate creation ; of instincts and
propensities in the animal kingdom ; and has endow-
ed the human species with those intellectual and
moral faculties, which are the inexhaustible sources
of the most exalted and refined enjoyments. Such
plans of wisdom and beneficence will be indubitably
accompanied in their order, both of time and place,
by a Power which conquers all opposition ; compels
apparent obstacles into its service ; changes disorder
into harmony ; and distress into blessings ; brings
light out of darkness, and cherishes virtue in the
midst of depravities that confound and appal !"*

In the disquisition that follows on the Jewish Dis-
pensation, many very ingenious thoughts and reason-
ings occur ; but it must be confessed that they suffer
much for want of method, condensation, and point.

* Theological Disquisitions. Vol. I. pp. 32, 33.

210 REMARKS ON THE

It is a part of the author's system, that the object of
all revelation is to produce good by the diffusion of
light and knowledge, in exact proportion as the minds
of men are prepared for their reception. It there-
fore becomes necessary for him to show, as he does,
that the records of the Old Testament, and especially
the history of the Jewish nation, and the laws and
institutions of Moses, agree with and support this
theory. There is much force and pertinency in the
closing paragraph, intended as an answer to the
doubts and cavils sometimes urged against the divine
legation of Moses, and often with a captiousness that
does no honour either to the head or heart of the
objector.

" Many very important positions are established
which no objections can invalidate. The selection of
a particular people for a certain purpose, the accom-
plishment of which could not have been expected
according to the ordinary course of human events ;
the importance of this purpose ; the preference given
to the descendants of Abraham, in honour of the ex-
emplary faith and piety of their progenitor ; the
means used to preserve this people from the fatal
contamination of idolatry ; their deliverance from a
state of bondage, and their establishment in a land
promised to their ancestors ; the superiour wisdom,
strict morality, sublime piety, exemplified in every
institution, honoured in every punishment, and in every
reward ; and the final triumph of monotheism among

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 211

this people, are facts which cannot be denied or con-
futed by frivolous disputes about dczmons and witches,
and magicians, and borrowing and lending of jewels ;
or the precise degrees of inspiration in every indi-
vidual agent of the divine purposes. We know that
the sun exists, and we consent to be cheered by its
light and splendour, without waiting till astronomers
shall have explained the nature, or wiped off the dis-
grace of those few spots, which our ignorance has
placed before his disk. When it can be proved, that
the happiness of mankind is not an object worthy of
the Deity ; that it is not the design of the Deity to
lead us, according to our nature and the extent of
our faculties, from gross ignorance to knowledge and
virtue ; that the numerous facts recorded in the
Jewish history have no relation to this object, and
have contributed nothing to its promotion ; then, and
not till then, may the advocates for the divine lega-
tion of Moses be alarmed, by trifling objections urged
respecting minuter subjects, over which distance of
time, a difference in customs, manners, idioms of
languages, and other circumstances have thrown a
temporary veil."*

In the remaining theological disquisition, which is
upon the Characteristic Excellencies of Christianity,
he proceeds to apply his leading principles as before ;
to evince the superiour lights and motives which the

* Theological Disquisitions. Vol. I. pp. 458, 459.

19*

212 REMARKS ON THE

Gospel affords to the practice of virtue, and the pre-
paration of the moral offspring of God for permanent
felicity. According to Dr Cogan, the principal ad-
vantages, derived from the christian dispensation,
relate to the views which it has given us of the parent-
al character of God ; the benefits resulting from the
mediatorial office of Christ ; the filial confidence,
which constitutes the essence of christian faith, that
it is adapted to inspire ; and the hopes and fears
which it awakens respecting a future life. Under the
head of the parental character of the Deity, we find
the following remarks on the reasonableness of a be-
lief in a. particular providence ; which, for the impor-
tance of the subject, and the excellent spirit they
breathe, must be read with interest even by those,
who may not assent to all his conclusions.

" We acknowledge that the Deity is immutable in
his nature, but we must also acknowledge that he is
necessarily active. His operations must be incessant,
or he is not always the same. In what manner he is
incessantly operative is a secret no one can disclose.
Nor can we discover what particulars are included in
our received axioms concerning the laws of nature,
and the agencies of cause and effect. We are gene-
rally prone to confine the course of nature entirely to
physical causes, or to the influence which one body
is ordained to have upon another, according to certain
immutable rules. But if the ever active Deity hath
not retired from his operations, something more must

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 213

be understood. It is possible, that the permanency
of physical powers may totally depend upon the per-
manency of his agency. Nor is it irrational to sup-
pose, that in certain cases, where the usual course of
things is not equal to the production of important
events preordained, this ever active Being exerts an
extraordinary energy, or a different kind of energy,
according to certain moral laws of his own appoint-
ment. When God condescended to change the order
of nature, or interrupt the usual influence of causes,
in order to impress a conviction upon the minds of
others, although it was by the infliction of judgments,
the motive was always benevolent. Some essential
good was to be produced, which could not otherwise
have existed. May not a similar motive induce him
to a similar interference, although in a more secret,
and perfectly imperceptible manner, in order to as-
sist, support, and console those who, in conformity to
his commands, repose their confidence in him, that,
their strength may be equal to their conflicts, and that
in the hour of temptation and distress, they may not
make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience ?

" This subject has been briefly considered in some
preliminary observations to a preceding Disquisition,
to which the reader is referred.* It was there ob-
served that our reason points out three modes by
which the Divine Being may be supposed to execute
his purpose ; by a stated concatenation of cause and

* See Theological Disquisitions. Preliminary Observations.

214 REMARKS ON THE

effect, according to physical laws, destined to produce
numberless beneficial effects, both in the natural and
moral world, which may be equal to various purposes,
both physical and moral, in the plans of his provi-
dence ; by an open and ostensible manifestation of
extraordinary power, in order to impress a conviction
upon the human mind, of some important facts, which
human reason could not have discovered, or to alarm
and terrify a sinful world ; and, thirdly, when these
manifestations are not necessary or proper, may we
not imagine that the Deity exerts a secret influence,
by which a new and extensive series of operations
may arise, which could not have existed according
to the former tenour of things ; and which, had the
operations been made manifest, would have been
deemed miraculous 9

" Many facts are upon record which evince that a
conviction of this secret agency may be founded,
either upon the prediction uttered, that certain events
should take place by the instrumentality of natural
causes ; or upon so remarkable a coincidence in their
operations with me peculiar exigence of the case, as
compels us to acknowledge the hand of God. Many
of the plagues of Egypt illustrate the former position.
The passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea ;
the destruction of their enemies by the return of the
mighty waters ; and the occasional supply of quails
in the wilderness, illustrate the latter. The extreme
violence of an eastern, or a western wind, cannot ap-

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 215

pear to us as a deviation from the laws of nature; nor
the sudden and impetuous change of these winds ;
yet their opportune influence, and the important pur-
poses answered by this influence, induce every one
who believes in the Mosaic history, to infer that there
was a miraculous interference of Providence. But
the Almighty is at all times free to employ a similar
agency, without admitting us into his counsels, and
without our being able to trace his footsteps. This
secret agency seems to be the proper object, as it is
the encouragement of prayer; and although the time,
manner, and degree, are totally unknown, yet devout
minds may safely rely upon the promise, that they
shall not seek his face in vain.

" The concealment is indubitably founded on wis-
dom. The laws of nature, or the operations of cause
and effect, cannot be too intimately known. They
are the foundation of all science, and a confidence in
them is necessary to encourage and direct our pur-
suits. Miraculous displays of power have sometimes
been employed, to convince an ignorant and unthink-
ing world, that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
But many evils would arise, were it distinctly known
in what cases, and to what a degree, the divine aids
promised in the Gospel were administered to each
individual christian. The favoured mind would, in
that instance, possess the infallibility of inspiration,
which might inspire it with arrogance and pride, and
induce it to neglect the ordinary means of improve-

216 REMARKS ON THE

ment ; while jealousy, envy, and despair, would tor-
ment those who wTere less favoured ; and the free
agency of man would be effectually destroyed. ' The
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it comes, and
whither it goeth ; so is every one, saith our Saviour,
that is born of the Spirit.' Whoever confidently
maintains that, in any particular instance, he is influ-
enced by the Spirit of God, should he not impose
upon others, wretchedly deceives himself. For a
certain knowledge of the operation would render it
miraculous. His feelings must be fallacious, for in
this department of the divine government, all the ope-
rations of God are designedly and wisely concealed
from human knowledge. By their fruits alone are
such influences to be inferred. These fruits are not
a presumptuous confidence, but ' love, joy, peace,
longsufTering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance.' "*

Respecting the benefits accruing to man from the
Merits and Sufferings of Jesus Christ, the views of
Dr Cogan are somewhat peculiar. He supposes, that
the penalty incurred by man's transgression was a
total extinction of his being ; that God, however, in
consideration of the perfect obedience, and voluntary
sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, has been pleased
to commute the punishment, by changing this total ex-

* Theological Disquisition on the Characteristic Excellencies of
Christianity. Part I. Chap. 2.

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 217

tinction of being into a temporary suspension of it in
the grave ; so that we may be said literally to be in-
debted to Jesus Christ, not only for the doctrine of our
immortality, but for our immortality itself. This privi-
lege he supposes the merits and sufferings of Christ to
have procured for the whole human race ; just as the
uncommon faith and piety of Abraham procured pe-
culiar privileges for his descendants.

But however great may be the privilege of being
thus restored to life, he admits that it is not in itself
a restoration to happiness ; it only presents us with a
continued opportunity to prepare, or qualify ourselves
for happiness. It is a principle with our author, from
which he never departs in his reasonings, and which
is as applicable to a future life as to this, that rational
beings cannot possess wellbeing, without the love and
practice of virtue, nor complete felicity, without the
perfection of virtue and piety. Though, therefore,
immortal life be secured to us by what Christ has
done for us; immortal happiness can only be secured
by what we may do for ourselves, with the means and
assistances which God has provided.

Christian faith is explained by this writer as im-
plying that entire confidence in Jesus Christ, which
is necessary that the promises and threatenings of the
the Gospel may have their effect on our characters.
For of course these promises can have no effect on
us any further than they are believed, nor be believ-
ed any further than we have confidence in the agent

218 REMARKS ON THE

employed to utter them. The following judicious
observations on the kindred subjects of justification
and human merit occur in this connexion.

" The terms justified, just, justifier ; and also
righteous, righteousness, righteousness of God, &ic.
which are so frequently used by the Apostle, convey,
in the currency of the English language, different sig-
nifications from those which are uniformly annexed to
them in the original Greek. We are accustomed to
consider the word to justify, as being synonymous
with to vindicate from a particular accusation ; and
the justifier, as the advocate who pleads the cause of
the accused. By righteousness, we are prone to un-
derstand the perfection of a moral character in gene-
ral. But by such applications, the primitive signifi-
cations of the words are placed at a considerable
distance from each other ; so that their natural con-
nexion with themselves and their subject is destroyed.
All these terms are derived from the same origin ;
and they invariably relate to a just decision, in a judi-
cial process. Consequently, they are equally appli-
cable to the condemnation of the guilty, and the
vindication of the innocent, or to an honourable ac-
quitted from the charges which have been brought
against him.

" Nor do they exclude a free pardon, or mitiga-
tion of the legal punishment, where the charge may
have been substantiated. All these may be righteous
judgments. The first places before the eyes of the

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 219

offender and of the public, the law, the 'transgress-
ion, and the penalty. The other evinces that neither
the offence, nor the penalty, is applicable to the ac-
cused. His innocence has been proved, and strict
justice demands that he should be acquitted. In the
remission of the punishment, or mitigation of the
penalty of the law, the decisions of equity consist in
pronouncing the offender to be guilty ; by which a
very important distinction is inviolably preserved be-
tween the guilty and the innocent. The law is pro-
tected, and the offender disgraced. His demerits
and his danger are publicly made known. But such
a discovery cannot be a total impediment to the exer-
cise of mercy. If it were, mercy would cease to
have an existence. Wherever the detection of guilt,
and immediate exposure to severe sufferings, inspire
the offender with anguish and contrition, they also
inspire a disposition in every benevolent mind to
soften the rigours of the law, if circumstances will
permit ; nor does such a mind apprehend that it will
offend justice, either by the remission or the mitiga-
tion of the penalty, as prudence may dictate. By
this constitution of our nature, we are rendered the
guardians both of justice and of clemency. We re-
sent the offence, but we pity the offender.

" Nor is this right relinquished in the establishment

of civil governments. A mercy seat is always placed

somewhere. Provision is always made for occasional

acts of grace. Nay, the most cruel tyrant claims to

20

220 REMARKS ON THE

himself the right of showing mercy when he pleases.
Were any of his subjects to litigate this privilege, they
would be in danger of suffering for the insult. In
cases of this kind, all that the principles of wisdom
and justice require, is, that in the mode of exercising
mercy the criminal should be encouraged to reform,
and not repeat his crimes ; and that his fellow sub-
jects should be discouraged from imitating his wicked
example. Where penitence is sincere, and there are
sanguine hopes of reformation, although the offender
has not been justified according to the stricter sense
of the word, mercy will freely consent that he shall,
in the future, be treated as if he had been justified.
His former offences shall no longer exclude him from
the privileges common to inoffensive citizens."*

The following excellent remarks on merit are found-
ed on the same principles, and accord with the same
general system.

"Absolute merit belongs not to the sinful children
of God. Even the future, however exemplary, can-
not recall the past. Life and immortality are the re-
wards of moral perfection only ; and the title of Right
is lost by a single act of disobedience. Among those
who are clothed with humanity, the claim belongs to
the immaculate Son of God alone. He knew no sin,
and with him the Father was always well pleased. In
him the merit was absolute.

* Ibid. Part II. Chap. 1. On the Mediatorial Office of Christ.

WRITINGS OF DR. COGAN. 221

" Conditional merit consists in our complying with
the terms of salvation proposed. Although a com-
pliance be simply an act of prudence, and can lay no
claim to any other kind of merit ; although the re-
ward is so infinitely superiour to the nature and effects
of the act itself, yet the man who conforms to the
injunction is entitled, by virtue of the promise, to the
reward proposed. The terms are, 'Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ ;' receive a dispensation which
proclaims pardon to the penitent, and assures those
who return to filial obedience, that they shall be enti-
tled to all the privileges of children, by being adopted
into the family of heaven. Compliance with such
terms is simply an act of discretion ; to reject them is
the extreme of folly, and it indicates the absolute
dominion of vice.

" On comparative merit is founded the wise deter-
mination, to reward every man according to his com-
parative deserts. By it we perceive the justice of the
decree, that 'whoever sows sparingly, shall reap spar-
ingly ; and he that sows plentifully, shall reap plenti-
fully.'

" The importance of these distinctions is manifest,
from the gross abuses committed by mistakes con-
cerning the nature of merit and demerit. Some
have been so extravagant as to conceive that particu-
lar actions, which have generally been of their own
devising, are of a nature so meritorious, that they will
be received as substitutes for the moral virtues ; that

222 REMARKS ON THE

they contain intrinsic merit sufficient to compen-
sate for every defect or imperfection ; without reflect-
ing that a continuance in vice must become a disqual-
ification for a state of purity and perfection ; and
without considering that there is more absolute de-
merit in a single vice, in one act of disobedience to
such a Parent, than there can be of merit in the most
splendid virtues.

" Others again have run into the opposite extreme.
In the confusion of their minds, they have declaimed
against the merit of good works with such indiscrim-
inate vehemence as to discourage the practice. They
pray earnestly for Holiness, but inveigh against Vir-
tue and Morality ; without considering that Holiness
can be no other than the practice of virtue from reli-
gious motives ; and no man can practice holiness
without understanding the nature of virtue, and the
extent of its ramifications."*

As has been intimated before, Dr Cogan discovers
nothing in reason, or revelation, to preclude the pos-
sibility, that those who die vicious and impenitent may
find correction as well as chastisement in the suffer-
ings, which they are doomed to undergo; until their
ignorance is dispelled, and their obduracy conquered,
and the whole moral creation ultimately restored to
knowledge, purity, and blessedness. Much of the
volume is appropriated to a discussion of this subject;
and whatever may be our opinion respecting the

- Ibid. Part I. Chap. 3

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN.

223

general question, it is impossible not to allow that
there is much justice and spirit in the following stric-
tures upon those representations of the future, eternal,
and infinite miseries of the damned, which are made
to occupy so large a space in the preaching and writ-
ings of calvinists.

"As the doctrine itself represents the true God,
in a character which resembles that ascribed to the
heathen deities, it was not unnatural to expect, that
adopting the methods practised by pagan worship-
pers might also render him propitious ; and every
subterfuge has accordingly been employed, rather
than to submit to the severer penance of ' denying
all ungodliness, and every worldly lust,' in order to
escape the misery they professed to dread. Multi-
tudes have considered the punishment of everlasting
misery so disproportionate to their guilt, that the
most abandoned have secretly indulged the hopes
of escaping. Nature prompts every rational creature
of God to trust in his mercy. Numbers will not,
cannot, believe that he is so implacable as their creed
has taught them. They will hope that he cannot re-
tain his anger forever ; and they are prone also to
consider an escape from eternal wretchedness, as an
acquittal from every degree of punishment.

" But some divines themselves are fostering such
dangerous delusions. Their compassionate hearts
shudder at their own principles ; and they have hu-
manely devised a prompt method of saving the most
20*

224

REMARKS ON THE

profligate sinner from eternal wrath. Although they
represent sin to be of so malignant a nature, that all
the flames of hell cannot, through myriads of ages,
purify the polluted soul, yet a simple act of faith in
a crucified Saviour, at the moment of nature's disso-
lution, or with the terrours of death before their eyes,
is sufficient to appease the wrath of God, and effect a
change in the heart, to which the chastisement of ages
would be incompetent ! By this single act, which is
manifestly an act of terrour upon which no depend-
ence can be made, the soul becomes instantly puri-
fied, as by a charm, and is prepared for the enjoy-
ment of the bliss reserved for the righteous in a
kingdom of righteousness, equally with those who, in
humble obedience to the divine commands, have been
working out their own salvation with fear and trem-
bling for a series of years, through numberless trials,
afflictions, and anxieties of heart ! Nay, so omnipo-
tent is this species of faith, in the opinion of some
divines, that wretches who have been notoriously
placed among the workers of iniquity for a series of
years, and whose atrocious crimes have, perhaps,
brought them to a premature and ignominious death,
will be received by the holy Jesus, with the saluta-
tion, ' Well done, thou good and faithful servant,
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord !'

" Who does not perceive that such incongruities
destroy each other ? That those who are most alarm-
ed at the tremendous consequences of disbelieving

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 225

this doctrine, have invented a method of annihilating
all its horrors? Sudden conversions, eagerly urged,
and as eagerly complied with, and which every wick-
ed man will thus be encouraged to expect, will not
only appease the wrath of God, beyond the power of
endless torments, but will answer all the purposes of
habitual virtue and piety ! Can those be faithful,
either to their trust, or to their principles, who, after
they have assiduously fenced round the holy paradise
of God, with all the flames of hell, that nothing which
defileth may enter, thus encourage miscreants to
break through the flames, that they may place them-
selves at the right hand of the throne of the Most
High, by one hasty act of faith ?"

" Again, that very doctrine which is supposed to be
necessary for the conversion of sinners, occasions
great multitudes to continue in their sins. Those
who maintain that every unbeliever will suffer never-
ending misery, should be peculiarly cautious not to
increase their number. But this dogma is one grand
cause of infidelity, and exposes the unbeliever to all
those irregularities which infidelity is prone to author-
ize. Men who are taught by the light of reason to
renounce this doctrine, and yet are taught by theo-
logians, that it is an essential article of the Christian
faith, will think themselves fully justified in renounc-
ing the whole of Christianity. The rational being
who admires the beauties of the creation, and adores
the benevolence which is there displayed towards all

226 REMARKS ON THE

men indiscriminately, is astonished that the very God
who shows so much indulgence to the wicked, in the
present state, should be represented as pouring out
the vials of eternal wrath upon them in a future
world, under a dispensation which is emphatically
termed a covenant of grace ! He turns from such
glad tidings of great joy with horrour and indignation ;
and being ignorant of the true design of Christianity,
he becomes a determined unbeliever. These are
historical facts. They are known to exist in every
country in Europe. They will increase in propor-
tion as the minds of men become emancipated from
implicit faith in their spiritual instructers, and they
will continue until the Gospel shall appear to them,
' to be more worthy of all acceptation.'

" Finally, we must remark that the doctrine of the
eternal misery of the wicked is very inimical to those
devout affections, which it is our duty and our happi-
ness to cultivate towards the God of transcendent
excellence. We are commanded to ' love the Lord
our God, with all our hearts, with all our souls, with
all our strength, and with all our minds.' These are
glowing expressions, uttered by him who was in the
bosom of his Father, and who hath revealed him unto
us ; expressions which manifest how supremely he
deserves our love, because he alone is supremely
good. It is the attribute of essential Goodness on
which the duty is founded ; it is this which renders it
a most rational and a most pleasant duty. But is it

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 227

possible for those to perform the duty aright, and to
the due extent of the grateful feelings, who are habit-
uated by their creed to consider the author of their
being as an object of terrour ? We cannot love whom
we please, and to the degree that we please, merely
because we are commanded. Nor can the affection
be called forth to a due extent, by a general indefi-
nite acknowledgment that he is good. We cannot
feel a warm affection for any human being, or an ad-
miration of his character, until we are made acquaint-
ed with some extraordinary instances of his superiori-
ty ; and as these abound, will our love and admira-
tion increase.

" Thus the simple proposition, that God is good,
may inspire a degree of respect, but it will not arise
to the ardour of love. This affection must be called
forth, and habitually cherished, by incessant manifes-
tations of operative goodness. The more numerous,
extensive, and extraordinary these, the more liberal
his gifts, the more condescending his compassion, the
more conspicuous his exertions for the diffusion of
extensive happiness, the more shall we feel the pro-
priety of the duty to love him with all our hearts, and
with the greater facility will the duty be practised.
But where munificence is limited by hypothesis to a
comparative few, and infinite severity is exercised
upon the multitude, without the intervention of wis-
dom, or power, to prevent miseries which exceed the
most vigorous imagination, men may attempt to love,

228 REMARKS ON THE

and they may resolve to check feelings of an opposite
character as impious, but they will not always suc-
ceed. Their religious tenets leave a deficiency
somewhere, not to be expected in the character and
conduct of a perfect Being, which must diminish that
exalted admiration they are solicitous to entertain.

" Moreover, should they arrive at that perfect love
which casteth out fear, it is upon a contracted, selfish
principle. They can be grateful alone for personal
favours, and admire the goodness of God in nothing
so much as in his partiality to themselves. They are
justly astonished that they should be selected from the
myriads who are consigned over to eternal misery ;
and there is nothing to admire in this, but a sovereign
act, which confounds the understanding ; and in
which, as there are no traces of wisdom, there can
be no marks of respectability. In a word, it is incon-
sistent with the nature of things, and with the very
constitution of the human mind, to love such a Being
with that profound veneration and ardour of devotion,
which are due to the wise and good Parent of the
universe.

" We are also commanded to love our neighbour
as ourselves. But does this love harmonize with the
gratitude which is so strongly excited, by a percep-
tion that others will be eternally excluded from the
transcendent blessings we are to enjoy ? Will not a
generous heart feel an anxious wish that others, not
less deserving, might also become participants ? If it

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 229

feels these emotions, it must also feel an astonishment
that God should implant them in the heart of man,
and not act upon so worthy a principle himself ! It
must perceive, that its benevolent dispositions exceed
those which we ascribe to our Maker ! If such de-
sires are not entertained, then is the heart hardened
by the system ; for it can contemplate the eternal
reprobation of the millions with a phlegmatic indif-
ference ! But historical facts innumerable inform us,
that it has been rendered still more obdurate. Mul-
titudes have enlisted under the banner of persecution ;
have hated men, because they supposed them to be
hated by God ; and have aspired to the honour of
wielding the exterminating sword, which was to send
their fellow immortals into eternal misery ! How dif-
ferent the sensations excited by such a creed, com-
pared with the humble and benevolent hope of that
Christian, who, while he laments that the wicked
should turn away from their duty and their happiness,
still rejoices that his God is their God, his Redeemer,
will be their Redeemer ; and though he reflects, with
concern, upon the misery they will inevitably bring
upon themselves, he enjoys the exquisite consolation,
that their sufferings will ultimately prove corrective of
their vices. What motives for composure and resig-
nation do these expectations afford to the sympathiz-
ing friend, to the affectionate relative, to the tender
and anxious parent, amidst the disorders and depravi-
ties of those whom they love ! The mind of every

230 REMARKS ON THE

pious Christian will learn to acquiesce in the chastise-
ments which shall prove salutary ; for he knows that
the severest judgments will be inflicted by wisdom
and mercy for purposes of Good."*

The last publication of Dr Cogan's which we shall
notice, though the first in the order of time, contains
his Letters to Wilberforce on the Doctrine of Heredi*
tary Depravity ; printed at first without the author's
name, but afterwards acknowledged by him, with the
declared intention of enlarging and republishing it in
a collection of his works, as a part of the series, and
to complete his design. As it is, it is certainly mark-
ed with more of his excellences, and with fewer of
his faults, than any other of his writings. It is a most
successful application of the same general principles,
which we have seen running through all his philo-
sophical, ethical, and theological speculations, to the
illustration of a particular doctrine of the Gospel ; or
rather to the detection and confutation of a long es-
tablished and pernicious errour. The Treatise, to
which, so far as this errour is concerned, these letters
are a most triumphant reply, certainly possesses high
merits ; but theological learning, conclusiveness of
reasoning, and precision of language, are not among
the number. Dr Cogan, while he pays a due respect
to the virtues and piety of his distinguished opponent,
proceeds with great seriousness, earnestness, and at
times with great eloquence to prove, that the positions

* Ibid. Part III. On the Probability of Universal Salvation.

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. 231

which he has taken, respecting original sin, are wholly
untenable ; absolutely irreconcilable with the Scrip-
tures ; with our conceptions of God ; with facts; with
the foundation of all moral distinctions ; and with the
constitution of the human mind.

This tract may be recommended with a more en-
tire satisfaction, because, in addition to the complete
success of the argument, an excellent spirit per-
vades it ; and because of the serious and religious
direction which it gives to our thoughts. It is, more-
over, upon a subject on which it is more important,
that a man should have clear and correct ideas, than
upon any other in the whole compass of speculative
theology. There is scarcely an errour which now
exists, or ever has existed in the church, that may
not be traced to some misapprehension of this sub-
ject, or to some supposed inference from it ; that has
not been held either as necessary to it, or as support-
ed by it. Destroy this unaccountable delusion, which
has possessed and still possesses so many minds, re-
specting the moral nature of man, and the moral con-
dition into which he is born, and what a mass of
absurd rites, and not less absurd opinions, which the
credulity of the superstitious or the craft of the de-
signing has imposed on the christian world, would be
left without foundation or apology ?

In remarking, generally, on Dr Cogan's merits
as a writer and reasoner, it must be admitted, that his
want of a lucid and happy arrangement, his perpetual
21

232

REMARKS ON THE

repetitions, and his vagueness and inaccuracy of ex-
pression, often indicating vagueness and inaccuracy of
thought, afford frequent and serious ground of com-
plaint to the reader. He likewise indulges his fond-
ness for the analytical mode of reasoning to an ex-
treme ; treating of the faculties and phenomena of
mind, not as they actually exist and operate, but dis-
jointedly and abstractedly. The consequence of which
often is, that he leaves his readers with as confused
and indistinct a conception of the mind itself, and its
various operations, as a man would have of a watch,
who had never seen one after it had been put togeth-
er, but had only seen, and perhaps heard a learned
lecture upon the several parts of the machinery, after
it had been taken to pieces. It is but just, however,
to observe, that our author's passion for analysis and
details has prevented his reasonings from being much
affected by his general biasses in favour of the Hart-
leian school ; which might otherwise have weakened
not a little the confidence, that a large proportion of
his readers may now safely repose in his conclusions.
After all, however, it is the fine moral effect of his
writings, which constitutes their highest recommenda-
tion. It is the harmony which they prove to exist be-
tween knowledge and virtue, between reason and
faith, between perfect obedience and perfect happi-
ness, that stamps upon them an unspeakable value,
and makes it impossible for any one to read them
without being made better. After being taught the

WRITINGS OF DR COGAN. ~oo

intimate and necessary connexion of our passions and
affections with our wellbeing, it is impossible that we
should not attend more to their due regulation ; after
being shown, that in the nature of things complacency
and delight must attend the exercise of the benevo-
lent dispositions, and pain and misery the selfish and
malevolent, it is impossible that we should not be
more inclined to the former; after being convinced, that
every event, even the most afflictive and inexplicable,
tends to good, that all is from God and for good to
all, it is impossible that we should not be more cheer-
fully acquiescent in the dispensations of Infinite Wis-
dom ; after considering the admirable adaptation of
all our circumstances in this life to our moral condi-
tion and improvement, and the whole history of reve-
lation to the onward march of the human mind, it is
impossible not to discern in this the hand of God ; and
being persuaded that it is the religion of Jesus,
which alone can excite and employ our best affec-
tions, and furnish an adequate object to our highest
and purest hopes and expectations, it is to that we
shall look for all real and permanent felicity here, and
hereafter. J. W.

COGAN'S
LETTERS TO WILBERFORCE,

ON THE DOCTRINE OF

TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

2V

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The writer of the following Letters having studied
the nature and genius of Christianity, for his own con-
viction and improvement, has long been satisfied with
such ideas of it, as appeared to him equally true and
rational; and he never indulged a thought of becom-
ing a theological controversialist, until the great popu-
larity of Mr Wilberforce's Practical View of the
prevailing Religious Systems of professed Christians,
excited his curiosity. He naturally expected some-
thing new and forcible from so distinguished an au-
thor. He was greatly disappointed ; and the perusal
of that celebrated work, instead of producing the
conviction which its author so ardently desires to be
the result, suggested to his mind with increased force,
the numerous objections which had finally induced
him to strike out of his creed a tenet in which he had
been educated ; and was taught to believe of the high-
est importance.

238 ADVERTISEMENT.

It might have been expected that the prevalence of
good sense, in the present day, and more accurate
ideas of the nature of justice in general, and of the
divine benignity in particular, would have committed
such a doctrine as that of hereditary guilt, to the ob-
livion it deserves. But as it has met with an eloquent
defender in the person of Mr Wilberforce, the errour
may acquire new strength to the injury of genuine
Christianity. That gentleman is zealous in support
of the tenet, because he considers it as the foundation
of all religion, and peculiarly of the christian dispen-
sation ; his opponent is equally zealous to confute it,
from a conviction that true Christianity cannot prevail
until this so great a stumblingblock, and some oth-
ers of which it is the basis, shall be removed. The
arguments on both sides are now before the public,
and it is for them to decide concerning the prepon-
derancy of evidence.

LETTERS

TOTAL, DEPRAVITY.

LETTER I.

Confidence with which the Calvinistic Tenet of De-
pravity is usually asserted. False Modes of Rea-
soning by which it is supported. Leads to Skepti-
cism. Sanctions absurd and impossible Doctrines.
To be believed only by rejecting the Dictates of
the Understanding. Harmony between Reason
and Scripture.

Sir,
It must afford satisfaction to every lover of virtue
and religion, to see a person in your elevated stRtion
step forth from amidst the luxury, dissipation, ambi-
tion, and irreligion that surround him, boldly vindi-
cate the cause which he deems to be of God, and enter
his protest against those who appear to be a disgrace
to the religion they profess. The purity of your mo-
tives, the fervour of your zeal, and your elegant
classic taste, unite to inspire you with a captivating

240 LETTERS ON

and impressive eloquence ; and it is the sincere wish
of the writer of these Letters, that it may be instru-
mental in exciting the minds of the indolent and luke-
warm, to pay more attention to the things which
relate to their most important interests. In the midst
of these excellences, every attentive reader must dis-
cern essential defects, which will inevitably render
your work much less acceptable and useful than you
ardently desire. He will perceive that the whole of
your diffuse, but eloquent expostulation, is uniformly
founded upon very bold assumptions. You appear
so eager to enforce your favourite doctrines upon the
minds and consciences of your readers, that you have
not given yourself sufficient leisure to inform us upon
what principles you have embraced them ; nor have
you taken sufficient pains to prove that the reception
of those particular doctrines of hereditary depravity,
the atonement of Christ, and the influence of the
Spirit, according to your ideas of them, is peculiarly
favourable to vital religion ; or the rejection of them
the grand cause of its decline. Yet of such infinite
moment do you consider these doctrines, that they
are every thing to you, and you are totus in Mis.
Not only is the disbelief of them the cause of depra-
vity of manners, but it is an indication of this depra-
vity ; virtuous conduct is suspicious, unless it be the
result of your principles ; you enter a solemn protest
against sincerity itself, if it be not connected with the
belief of them ; and the cordial reception of chris-

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 241

tianity, as a wise and beneficent dispensation from
God, will convey no higher title than that of a nomi-
nal christian. Such contracted notions could not
have been expected, Sir, from a person of your edu-
cation and accomplishments ; they properly belong
to the most illiterate proselytes of the tabernacle.
Do you not perceive that the censorious temper you
have thus indulged, must be extremely offensive to
him who has enjoined, "judge not, that ye be not
judged ?" — whose Apostles, in the spirit of their mas-
ter, admonish not to speak evil of another ; and with
a well adapted degree of indignation, inquire, " who
art thou that judgest another? to his own master he
standeth or falleth ?" Is not this conduct inverting the
criterion of our Saviour, teaching us, not to judge of
the tree from the fruit ; but of the fruit from the tree ;
and condemning all as of a noxious quality, that is
not gathered from your favourite vineyard ? Are you
not sensible that it is peculiarly inconsistent in one
who endeavours, throughout the whole of his animat-
ed performance, to inculcate christian humility, and
the deepest self-abasement ? Is it not an absurd union
of the penitent publican's humiliation, with the pride
of the pharisee ? While you recommend the language
of the former, " Lord be merciful to me, a sinner !"
you exclaim, in the spirit of the latter, to those whose
religious opinions do not reach your standard, " stand
off from me, for I am holier than thou." I am a
real, thou art but a nominal christian !

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Sentiments like these, which pervade your work,
ought at least to have been founded on the clearest
proofs, not only that the doctrines which you main-
tain, are of a truth from God ; but that he has de-
cidedly enjoined the belief of them, as essential to
the character of a christian. You ought also to have
fully demonstrated, either that those who refuse from
principle to admit these doctrines, are more immoral
in their conduct, than those of your own persuasion,
who frequently receive them implicitly ; or, that their
opinions contain within themselves the seeds of im-
morality. You should have proved that their belief
in the humanity of Christ, teaches them to reject both
his example and his precepts ; that no one can ac-
ceptably apply to the throne of grace, for the pardon
of his sins, unless he has exactly the same ideas with
yourself, concerning the mode in which this pardon
will be imparted ; that no one can become sanctified,
without embracing your particular opinion concerning
the nature of divine influences; and that every man
must continue dead in trespasses and sins, unless he
repent of those committed before he was born. You
lament that the doctrines for which you are so zealous
an advocate, have lost much of their power over those
who embrace them. If you had inquired into the
cause of this indifference, you might perhaps have
discovered the cause of that general depravity you
bewail, without stigmatizing a class of people, of
whom, as it clearly appears, you are totally ignorant ;

TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

243

or indulging in the reprehension of opinions which
you have not refuted. The professors of the high
Calvinistic tenets have frequently been accused of an
illiberal and censorious spirit; it would have been
peculiarly exemplary, in a person of your talents and
your influence, not to have patronised the disposition,
or given it so great a sanction by your own conduct.
It might at least have been expected, that the severe
sentence from your tribunal would have been pre-
ceded by the full detection of dangerous errours, or
particular criminality of behaviour, in the party you
condemn.

You have not pursued this line of conduct. The
doctrines of the atonement and influence of the Spirit
are introduced and enlarged upon with all the confi-
dence attendant upon implicit faith. Not an argu-
ment is brought forward in support of these doctrines,
though you deem it so fatal to deny them. You
have indeed made some cursory observations in proof
of hereditary depravity ; but these are by no means
adequate to the importance you ascribe to that tenet,
which you represent as lying at the root of all reli-
gion, and still more, as being eminently the basis
and groundwork of true Christianity. Surely, Sir, a
tenet which you deem so peculiarly important, the
principles of which pervade your whole system of re-
ligion, should have been established by all the force
of reason, so that scarcely a doubt could remain, be-
fore you enforce it, as of the utmost moment, with all
the powers of your eloquence.
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After giving a very lively and very just portrait of
the vices and depravities with which mankind have
been chargeable in every age and nation, even under
circumstances the most advantageous to virtue and
religion, you inquire, " How, can we account for the
contrast between the actual state of man, and that for
which, from a consideration of his natural powers, he
seems to have been originally calculated ? How on
any principles of common reasoning, can we account
for it, but by conceiving that man, since he came out
of the hands of his Creator, has contracted a taint ;
and that the venom of this subtle poison has been
communicated throughout the race of Adam, every
where exhibiting incontestable marks of its fatal malig-
nity ?" You proceed to trace the progress of depravi-
ty, in a manner perfectly unexceptionable, and then
resume the query, " How can this be accounted for
on any other supposition, than that of some original
taint, some radical principle of corruption ? All
other solutions are unsatisfactory, whilst the potent
cause which has been assigned does abundantly, and
can alone sufficiently, account for the effect." You
proceed to assert, " that the corruption of human
nature is proved by the same mode of reasoning as
has been deemed conclusive in establishing the exist-
ence, and ascertaining the laws of the principle of
gravitation ; that the doctrine rests upon the same
solid basis as the sublime philosophy of Newton ; that
it is not a speculation, and therefore an uncertain,

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 245

though, perhaps, an ingenious theory, but the sure
result of large and actual experiment, deduced from
incontestible facts, and still more fully approving its
truth by harmonizing with the several parts, and ac-
counting for the various phenomena, jarring otherwise
and inexplicable, of the great system of the universe."
There never was, perhaps, a more singular instance
of bewildered and bewildering sophistry, than that
contained in the above paragraph. You begin with
modestly forming a conjecture ; you conceive, from
the contrast between the actual state of man, and
that for which he seems to have been originally in-
tended, that man, since he came out of the hands of
his Creator, has contracted a taint ; and that, as you
express it in another place, not slightly and superfi-
cially, but radically, and to the very core. But cres-
cit eundo ; having thus formed an humble conjecture,
you become immediately certain of its truth ; for you
assert that this subtle poison exhibits every where in-
contestible marks of its malignity. Advanced thus
far you grow still bolder, for you positively affirm,
that this potent cause assigned can alone sufficiently
account for the effect ; and immediately proceeding
to raise what wTas at first simply a modest and diffi-
dent conception to an equality with strict demonstra-
tion, you attempt to place it upon a basis of equal
solidity with the discoveries of the immortal Newton.
Do you not observe, that in the impetuosity of your
zeal, you have confounded your solution of the diffi-

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culty with the facts which gave rise to the difficulty ;
and, dexterously blending the degeneracy of man
with the cause you assign, you precipitately conclude,
that whoever admits the former, must admit the lat-
ter ? Your assertion, that there can be no other cause,
is extremely bold ; it necessarily implies either that,
if you cannot find out any other solution, no one can ;
or that, because it has not been discovered to your
satisfaction already, it never can be. Positions as
inadmissible as they are inconsistent with that tone of
diffidence, with which you introduce the subject.

Permit me, Sir, to observe, that if the hypothesis
of that great philosopher had not been better founded
than the one you propose, it would long ago have
been buried in oblivion ; unless it had been sanction-
ed by established creeds, or supported by the dread
of disbelieving it. Sir Isaac observed one body to
fall towards another. This he discovered, by subse-
quent observations and experiments, to be a principle
common to all bodies ; and he called it gravitation.
The principle being obtained, he investigated its laws,
until, by experiments, observations, and inferences,
he found himself able to explain every leading phe-
nomenon of nature by it ; as you express it, approv-
ing the truth of his theory by its harmonizing with
the several parts, and accounting for the various phe-
nomena, jarring otherwise and inexplicable, of the
great system of the universe. But where is the
parallel ? Yours is simply a conjecture to explain a

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 247

seeming phenomenon. You assert that it cannot be
resolved in any other way, and triumph in a complete
demonstration of the point in question ! Is this New-
tonian ? Again, the hypothesis of the philosopher con-
tradicts no one principle of natural reason ; it is not
attended with consequences, which reflect dishonour
upon any of the divine attributes. Your hypothesis
harmonizes nothing ; it contradicts the first principles
of reason, plunges the mind into much greater diffi-
culties than those which it attempts to solve, and
leads to consequences so absurd and impious, that
every prudent man will rather sit down in perfect
ignorance, leaving the phenomena unexplained, than
venture to admit it.

Excepting we admit strong expressions and posi-
tive assertions in the place of argument, all that you
have advanced proves nothing more, than that the
human mind is very capable of becoming depraved ;
that the will and affections may, and frequently do,
take a pernicious turn ; that perverse inclinations
and atrocious conduct may become habitual in the
individual, until every good principle shall seem to
be extinguished ; that these may be, and frequently
are, rendered contagious by the force of evil example,
or in consequence of that sympathy in our natures
which disposes to imitation, whether the model be
good or evil, until the accumulation of vice and pro-
faneness shall exceed all calculation, or even the
power of reform. This seems to have been the state
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of the antediluvian world, when all "flesh had corrupt-
ed his way on the earth," so that " every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continual-
ly, and it repented the Lord that he had made man
on the earth." The mind once perverted may be
rendered capable of every excess ; and an assem-
blage of perverted minds may operate like a pesti-
lence. But as a physical pestilence arises from putrid
miasmata, or noxious changes, which incidentally take
place in bodies originally free from noxious qualities,
why may not a moral pestilence be communicated to
minds originally pure, free from any original taint, or
inherent hereditary disposition to sin f

To this very superficial and illogical mode of rea-
soning, you have subjoined a number of scriptural
passages, some of which, as has been judiciously
remarked, cannot be admitted in evidence ;* and the
others amount to no more than strong representations
and pathetic lamentations of human degeneracy,
without pretending to ascribe it to the cause you
assign.

A full confidence in your demonstration has in-
spired you with courage to state a very formidable
objection in all. its force. You represent some bold
objector as pleading, " Whatever I am, I am what
my Creator made me. I inherit a nature, you your-
self confess, depraved and prone to evil ; how then

* Sec a Review of Mr Wilberforce's Treatise, by the Rev. Thomas
Belsham.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 249

|

can I withstand the temptations to sin by which I am
environed? If this plea cannot establish my innocence,
it must excuse, at least attenuate my guilt. Frail and
weak as I am, a being of infinite justice and good-
ness will never try me by a rule, which, however
equitable in the case of creatures of a higher nature,
is altogether disproportionate to mine."

As this potent objection is so fairly stated, it was
natural to expect that you had discovered some new
mode of confutation that you possessed some reserve
of arguments that should stagger the bold objector
himself, if not demonstrate the fallacy of his rea-
soning to others ; but your answer is so evasive and
unsatisfactory, that he will certainly retain all his
boldness ; and probably his confidence in the force of
his objection will be increased. Nay, you have ex-
hibited a melancholy specimen of the subterfuges, to
which an ingenious and ingenuous mind will have
recourse, in order to weaken the force of the strongest
arguments against a favourite hypothesis. To submit
your mode of reasoning to a critical examination,' and
confute your positions step by step, would be a prolix,
though a very easy employment. A few observations
will suffice.

You first place this objection in the mouth of a
skeptic, and confess, that " although it may not be
difficult to expose the futility of his reasoning, you
should almost despair of satisfying him of the sound-
ness of your own." Your leading argument with

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him would be to show, that as " his pre-conceptions
concerning the conduct of the Supreme Being had
been in fact contradicted, particularly by the exist-
ence at all of natural or moral evil ; and thus proved
erroneous in one instance, why may they not be so
likewise in another ?" But as you could only expect
to silence, not to convince him by this query, you
would " attempt to draw him off from those dark and
slippery regions, and contend with him on sure
grounds." Instead of giving a direct answer to the
objection, your plan is to take the "high priori road"
to prove the truth and importance of the christian reli-
gion, and then to enforce the necessity of submitting
reason and judgment to whatever may be taught in
the sacred writings concerning this and every other
point in dispute. In consequence of this mode, you
would urge upon him the following contrarieties; "the
justice and goodness of the Supreme Being ; the na-
tural depravity of man — but that this natural depravity
shall never be admitted as an excuse for sin ; and that
neither our sins, nor the dreadful consequences of
them, are to be chargeable upon God." You strenu-
ously inculcate " that this corruption and weakness
will not be admitted as lowering the demands of
divine justice, and in some degree palliating our trans-
gressions of the law of God." And thus is the skeptic
completely refuted. To the christian it is recom-
mended to silence his doubts, by the consideration
that if our natural condition be depraved and weak,

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our temptations numerous, and our Almighty Judge
infinitely holy, yet that the offers to penitent sinners
of pardon, and grace, and strength, are universal and
unlimited.* You acknowledge, however, that there
are difficulties attending the subject above and beyond
our comprehension ; and you attempt to soften this
acknowledged truth, by observing that there is scarce-
ly an object around us, that does not afford endless
matter of doubt and argument. The meanest reptile
which crawls on the earth, nay, every herb and flower
which we behold, baffles the imbecility of our limited
inquiries.

It is very apparent from the above concise, but
faithful statement of your mode of treating the sub-
ject, that the objection itself is insurmountable by

* This species of indemnification, you hold out to the penitent
christian, is a kind of confession, that those who are necessitated to
remain impenitent, have a right to claim it also ; or at least that
they are treated with a severity which approaches to injustice; unless
you suppose that no injustice can be committed to the non-elect, as
the bigotted Catholic maintains that no faith is to be kept with
heretics. The terms unlimited and universal, inspire, at first glance,
an idea worthy of Divinity ; but being systematically interpreted,
they become both limited and partial. They can only refer to the
number and magnitude of sins that have been committed in an un-
converted state, and to the aid promised to the few who have been
converted by the Spirit of God. Thus what you call grace, those
who are without the sphere of its influence will inevitably call ■par-
tiality ; and the more universal and unlimited the pardon granted to
chosen favourites, the more striking will the contrast appear to those
who are doomed to remain under the burden of Adam's sins, as well
as their own.

252 LETTERS ON

any powers of human reason, and therefore that an
absolute veto must be put upon these reasoning pow-
ers ; nay, you deem it " an awful and affecting
spectacle to see men thus busying themselves in these
vain speculations of an arrogant curiosity, and trifling
with their dearest, their everlasting interests."

How is it possible, my good Sir, for a man of your
sense to argue so superficially and so inconsistently?
To consider a question upon which so much depends,
as a vain speculation of arrogant curiosity, and tri-
fling with our dearest interests .? You have placed the
doctrine of an hereditary taint at the foundation of
all religion ; you render the belief of it of equal im-
portance with the belief of Christianity itself; and
yet you treat it as a vain speculation ! Others strong-
ly suspect, that it is neither scriptural nor rational,
and they are convinced that the moral attributes of
Divinity are deeply concerned in the contest ; to
make inquiry into its truth, therefore, cannot pro-
ceed from arrogant curiosity, nor can it be trifling
with their dearest interests. It is this interest, Sir,
that warmly induces them to search after the truth,
as it is indeed in Jesus, that they may not rashly re-
ceive for doctrines the commandments of men. Since
the Deity has endued our minds with discriminating
powers, he not only permits, but requires their exer-
tion upon subjects most worthy of them. Therefore,
unterrified with the awfulness of the spectacle, we
shall proceed to examine the validity of your argu-

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 253

ments in opposition to the formidable objection that
has been stated.

It might be asserted, that your first and leading
argument, if it were admitted, would prove too much ;
that it opens the door for an unlimited extent of evil ;
and, carried to its excess, would leave it indifferent
to the wretched inhabitants of the universe, whether a
being, nominally beneficent, or nominally malevolent,
presided over their lot. Your objector will, therefore,
claim a right to urge, that there must be some limit-
ation of this evil under the empire of a Being essen-
tially good, or the conduct of both would be exactly
similar. He will suggest, that the existence of evil,
both natural and moral, to a certain extent, may be
an indispensable law in the constitution of limited and
imperfect beings ; that natural evil may become bene-
ficial to the sufferer himself, and that the temporary
permission of both may be productive of good to a
much greater degree than could be obtained without
it. He will advance, that the greatest sufferings that
have been inflicted cannot be deemed unjust, when
they have not been inflicted beyond the claims or
deserts of the sufferer, and where a power of indem-
nification is reserved in the hands of the Almighty.
He will tell you, that your position represents the
divine conduct in the admission of evil, to be arbitra-
ry and unlimited. It proposes no other rule of action
than the Sic volo, sic jubeo, stat pro ratione voluntas.
It renders human beings natively vile and wretched ;

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it represents vindictive justice as punishing, to the
utmost extent of severity, this inevitable cast of cha-
racter, without a ray of hope or power of alleviation.
He will remind you, that although it is not inconsistent
with the character of a wise and good parent to inflict
a certain degree of suffering upon his offspring, yet
no wise and good parent will render them completely
miserable. He may administer a bitter potion, and
retain his reputation, but he cannot administer poison.
His right to correct the faults of character or of con-
duct observable in a child, by severe chastisement,
will convey no title to render the whole of his exist-
ence a curse on accession of infirmities, which could
not have been avoided.

The other mode you recommend, that of proving
the truth and importance of the christian religion,
and then insisting on the necessity of receiving this,
and other peculiar doctrines, as an essential part of
the christian's creed, does not promise greater suc-
cess. Your objector dares to reason farther than
yourself; and it will be difficult to call forth all his
reasoning powers till you have gained this happy
point of conviction, and then check and prohibit their
future operations. He will expect, that the evidences
of the truth of Christianity shall be succeeded by the
evidence of its excellence ; and when he finds a num-
ber of doctrines proposed to him, inconsistent with
that reason you have permitted him to exercise, he
will feel himself disconcerted and embarrassed. He

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will examine the nature of these doctrines ; if he dis-
cover them to be inconsistent with the attributes of
Deity, while he still believes them essential to Chris-
tianity, there is great danger of his rejecting Chris-
tianity itself. He will argue, that although the force
of testimony be strongly in favour of the existence,
character, mission, resurrection of Jesus, the internal
evidence is so directly contrary to the honourable
ideas we ought to entertain of the Divinity ; the doc-
trines it inculcates are so revolting, that my reason
teaches me to withhold my assent. I had rather be-
lieve human testimony to be deceitful, however strong-
ly supported, than I will believe the contradictions,
you enforce upon me. If, on the contrary, he should
suspect that these doctrines are not of God, and
should find upon inquiry, that they are the mere in-
ventions of men, who have given an artificial import-
ance to their crude conceptions, and guarded, with
all the terrours of a gloomy imagination, sentiments
which cannot bear the light of reason, he may remain
a sincere believer in Christianity.

These, Sir, are not mere speculative probabilities ;
each process has been frequently repeated. Inquisi-
tive students in theology have, in numerous instances,
either relinquished the doctrines you deem peculiar
to Christianity, or they have relinquished Christianity
altogether. Admitting that the atrocities lately com-
mitted in a neighbouring nation proceed entirely from
infidelity, it may be fairly concluded, that this infi-
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delity is to be ascribed to the absurdities of their na-
tional creed. These they have been taught from
their infancy to venerate as the essential doctrines of
Christianity ; but as soon as reason began to dawn,
not being accustomed to view the religion of Jesus
through any other medium, and totally unable to dis-
criminate truth from errour, they have rejected the
whole. May we not also add, that the unworthy con-
ceptions of Deity, which the professors of so bigotted
a religion must inevitably entertain, the terrific repre-
sentations of the divine character, the trifling and
ridiculous methods enjoined to appease his wrath and
obtain his favour, have contributed no small share to
the spread of atheism. Vain philosophy has hastily
concluded, that to banish such a Being from the mind
was doing service to humanity ; and the populace
naturally became very indifferent about his existence.
In like manner may we attribute much of the incredu-
lity discoverable among protestants, to the exception-
ablet enets still remaining in the creeds and confess-
ions of churches which call themselves reformed.
To the thoughtless and indifferent they serve as a
pretext, while they disgust the considerate, and in-
duce them rashly to exclaim, If this be your Chris-
tianity, it cannot be from above.

On the other hand, there are also many instances
of persons in whom a religious temper and the power
of discrimination are happily united, and who know
how to separate the chaff from the wheat. There

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257

are many who have been converted to the belief of a
gospel, purged of its impurities, who thought it not
worthy of credit in its impure state. There are many
others who were educated after the strictest sect of
our religion, or in the doctrines of Calvinism, who
have been able, upon the closest examination, to
separate truth from errour, the word of God from the
additions, false conceptions, and impositions of men ;
whose faith in the truth and importance of Christian-
ity has been confirmed, by discovering that tenets the
most objectionable, were not Christianity. These,
Sir, have joyfully stopped at the half-way house you
have mentioned with contempt. They find it pleas-
antly situated between the dreary and barren wastes
of infidelity, on the one hand, and the gloomy regions
of false theology on the other. Here they meet with
rationality in amity with religion ; they rejoice in a
station where the mind can indulge hope and confi-
dence in its God, without the injunction of sacrificing
their reason ; and, Sir, without flattery, they would
feel themselves highly gratified were you to join the
society. One circumstance renders them peculiarly
worthy of your notice ; the ablest defenders of Chris-
tianity are to be found in this very class, to which you
have been reluctant to give the full title of Christians.
Had it not been for their labours, the absurdities of
systems like yours would have completely banished
religion from among us, and have deluged this coun-
try also with the torrents of infidelity. They have

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long stood in the breach, and fought your battles,
though, as it appears, without receiving the puny re-
ward of " honourable mention."

It is easy to perceive from another observation you
make, that your extreme embarrassment, respecting
this acknowledged difficulty, has led you to blend
and confound things inexplicable with things contra-
dictory ; ideas perfectly distinct. " There is scarce-
ly an object around us," you say, " that does not afford
endless matter of doubt and argument. The meanest
reptile that crawls upon the earth, nay, every herb
and flower which we behold, baffles the imbecility of
our limited inquiries." It is readily acknowledged,
that we cannot comprehend many things respecting
these. We know not what constitutes animal or
vegetable life, whence the powers and properties of
each class, or what occasions the diversities they pos-
sess. But we know that this life, its laws, its diversi-
ties, its final cause, — the diffusion of enjoyment, —
manifest the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of
the great Author of life. When it can be shown, that
God created the meanest reptile, either with a deter-
mination to render it miserable, or with a prescience
of its misery ; when it can be proved, that the present
race of reptiles receive disgrace, and become heirs of
endless misery, for some misconduct of their parent
reptile, the cases will become parallel. Then also
will wisdom and goodness vanish from our sight, and
power alone, arbitrary and tyrannical, be left for our

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contemplation. Then also will those, who should
embrace the extravagant hypothesis, find themselves
embarrassed in inexplicable difficulties, in attempting
to reconcile palpable contradictions.

Permit me further to observe, as no unimportant
addition to the above, that unless you relinquish your
argument, you will be compelled to increase the num-
ber of articles in your faith ; for your mode of rea-
soning is equally applicable to the vindication of some
doctrines which you deny ; and these also must be
received, unless you acknowledge its futility respect-
ing those you admit. How would you be able to
confute the doctrine of transubstantiation upon your
principles, in a controversy with a Roman Catholic ?
He asserts most positively, that the doctrine is taught
in the sacred Scriptures ; holds its belief necessary
to salvation ; terms those mere nominal christians
who deny it ; and laments the degeneracy of the
times in which such an important truth is visibly upon
the decline. You are now the bold objector ; you
advance, that the expressions in Scripture require no
such interpretation, and that the doctrine is absurd
in itself. He concedes, that considerable difficulties
surround it, and that the objection cannot be satis-
factorily answered by a direct appeal to reason. He
resolves to draw you off from these dark and slippery
regions, and contend with you on sure grounds.
Supposing you to be a skeptic, he will commence by
proving the truth of the christian religion ; if you
23*

260 LETTERS ON

acknowledge the Scnptures, he will charge you with
inconsistency and irreligion in not believing all that
the Scriptures contain. The expressions, he urges,
are absolute ; this is my body broken for you ; this
cup is my blood. You are not to oppose the imper-
tinence of your reason, or the imbecility of your in-
quiries, to the express declarations of Christ.

Should you yield to the force of his argument, an
Anthropomorphite presents himself. He tells you,
that passages innumerable prove, beyond dispute, that
the Supreme Being has bodily organs ; urges that
the Scriptures repeatedly mention the hands of the
Lord, the eyes of the Lord ; that they speak of the
breath of his nostrils, of his voice, and declare that the
earth is literally his footstool. You allege, that these
are merely figurative expressions. He contradicts
the assertion. You maintain, that his doctrine mili-
tates against the spirituality of the divine nature. He
admits this spirituality, but he will not relinquish
his tenet. He allows the subject to be difficult, at-
tempts to soften the difficulty by suggesting that every
reptile, and every flower baffles the imbecility of our
inquiries ; that there is scarcely an object that does
not afford endless matter for doubt and argument ;
and he believes in the pure spirituality of God, and in
the doctrine of the Anthropomorphites.

A third appears, who also professes to be a firm
believer in Christianity, and to receive the doctrines
as he finds them, without venturing to consult the

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 261

imbecility of his own reason. He maintains that the
true object of Christ's mission, was to disseminate
strife and hatred through the world. You are sur-
prised and indignant at such a charge being brought
against a religion, which proclaims peace on earth,
and good will towards men ; against the doctrine of
the meek and humble Jesus, who pronounced, Blessed
are the peace makers, and whose example was such
an unequalled pattern of patience, forbearance, and
forgiveness ! Your opponent tells you, these are falla-
cious notions ; you are even warned not to be de-
ceived by them, for Christ himself admonishes you,
" think not that I am come to send peace on earth, I
come not to send peace, but a sword. For I am
come to set a man at variance against his father, and
the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-
in-law against her mother-in-law." It is in vain that
you attempt to qualify and explain ; this man also,
who has built his system upon particular passages,
mistaking strong expressions for literal import, insists
upon your believing it as a revealed truth, and avers
that the very object of Christ's mission was to excite
animosities. Can you possibly reject his principles
with the indignation they deserve, without perceiving
that your mode of reasoning leads to regions dark
and slippery in the extreme ? Such are the embar-
rassments into which your manner of defending a
doctrine, not more free from exceptions than any of
the preceding, necessarily precipitates you.

262 LETTERS ON

However respectful it in ay appear to the divine
oracles, the method you propose leaves the mind still
in doubt what these oracles may contain. Amidst
the multiplicity of opinions, which present themselves
according to the different ideas annexed to various
passages of Scripture, it entirely destroys the power
of selection ; and it necessarily introduces such a con-
fusion of sentiment, as has afforded too good an
apology for the interference of spiritual guides, who
have assumed the office of composing creeds and
confessions for the multitude, and attempted to enforce
the unity of the faith in the bonds of peace, by all the
terrours of civil authority, and all the anathemas of
religion. It is thus that the majority of christian
professors have become supple and credulous ; they
bow before creeds established by law, until they con-
sider every doubt to be a sin, and every opposition to
the established faith as an act of profaneness and
impiety. But the device being purely human, is ne-
cessarily imperfect. Truth, immutable truth, is ac-
cording to this plan made to vary with the region in
which particular tenets have gained the ascendency ;
and that which is the true orthodox faith in one coun-
try, without which no man can possibly be saved, be-
comes a damnable heresy in another.

Have you never considered it, Sir, as highly im-
probable, that the Deity should have suffered the
evidence for the historical truth of Christianity to be
so extremely powerful and convincing, that no court

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 263

of judicature has ever required stronger proofs for the
establishment of facts in a civil process, and yet that
this perspicuity of evidence should cease, the instant
we apply ourselves to inquire what are the funda-
mental doctrines of Christianity ? Is it not singular,
that the moment we are admitted within the veil,
where it was natural to expect all would be bright and
glorious; is it not singular, that doubts and difficulties
and mysteries should present themselves to distract
and torment the mind ; and that a prohibition should
be issued, no longer to use that very reason which
conducted us thither ? Is it possible that the conduct
of Providence should be so inconsistent with itself?
If not, then may we safely conclude that those alone
deserve to be considered as the peculiar doctrines of
the Gospel, which are as plain and conspicuous as
the facts which establish the credibility of the Gospel;
those in which all christians must agree ; and we
may safely conclude, that difficulties arise precisely
at the points where doctrines are of less importance,
or entirely the false conceptions of fallible men.

But the attempt you make to check ratiocination,
or to destroy its authority in matters of religion, is
vain and impotent. It is in itself a species of felo de
se ; for it can only be made by an effort of reason.
Sentiments the most absurd, positions the most extra-
vagant, can only be reconciled to any mind, because,
in some point of view or other, it appears rational to
admit them. The man who insists the most strenu-

264 LETTERS ON

ously upon faith, to the disparagement of human rea-
son, thinks that he enforces the injunction upon
rational principles. The argument is concise. God
is wiser than man, it is therefore vain and presump-
tuous for man to oppose the imbecility of his reason
to the revelation of God. If synods and councils
draw up confessions of faith for the multitude, and
prohibit the perusal of the volumes from which they
profess to have taken them, the argument is, the popu-
lace are not able to judge for themselves, and they
will infallibly run into destructive errours ; and the
populace acquiesce, because they infer that their
teachers, from the superiour advantages they enjoy,
must know much better than themselves. Thus all
may be resolved into the inductions of the reasoning
faculty, however erroneous.

On the other hand, christians of a different de-
scription acknowledge, that the word of God ought
to be implicitly received ; but they think it incumbent
upon them to use their reason, in a careful inquiry,
What is the word of God ? Propositions of the most
extravagant nature, opinions diametrically opposite to
each other, put in their claim. It is impossible to
admit them all, how then are they to be distinguished?
Reason, and reason alone, must be the guide. When
a doctrine is proposed to them which evidently con-
tradicts first principles universally admitted, they
reject it. Their argument is the following ; it is in-
finitely more natural to suspect that a wrong interpre-

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 265*

tation is given, by weak and fallible men to those
scriptural expressions, which are thought to contain
the sentiment enforced, than that it should be in real-
ity the word of God. Since scripture phraseology is
so extremely various, that every rash and inconsider-
ate mortal may find out some expressions, that shall
seem to countenance his favourite dogmata, they think
it highly necessary to lay down for themselves some
indubitable positions, which may safely conduct them
through the labyrinths of errour and contrarieties.
They know, for example, that the God of grace can-
not possess a character essentially different from the
God of nature, since he is the same God. They
naturally expect much clearer displays of universal
benignity under the former character, than those
which the latter exhibits to their admiring view ; and
therefore they suspect those doctrines which create an
opposition.

Upon inquiry, they discover that the proofs in their
support are feeble and inconclusive. They discover
that the passages on which this discord was founded,
have been egregiously mistaken, and that fair criti-
cism restores the harmony. When two very different
or opposite interpretations solicit acquiescence, they
give the preference to that which is the most rational
in itself, and the most honourable to Deity ; and they
invariably find that this interpretation is the most con-
sonant with the general tenour of Scripture. They
explain obscure parts in the sacred writings, by those

266 LETTERS ON

which are the most conspicuous, instead of pursuing
the contrary plan, and this teaches them to distinguish,
most carefully, the plain and simple truths expressly
taught by Christ himself and his Apostles, after they
were commissioned by their Master to preach the
Gospel, from those strong figurative expressions, and
bold representations, occasionally employed by the
same Apostles in their epistolary writings ; where it
is the invariable object not to preach another Gospel,
or make an addition to that preached in their personal
ministry, but to enforce the truths already promul-
gated, upon the hearts and consciences of the new
converts to Christianity. By pursuing a few natural
and simple maxims of this kind, they solve difficulties
innumerable ; they discover a perfect harmony be-
tween the word of God, and that reason which God
has given them to judge of it. They believe, because
they discover truths perfectly congenial with the na-
ture, wants, and expectations of men, and perfectly
consistent with the character and perfections of Deity.
The man, who has thus purified his faith from the
dross of false theology, well knows the difficulties
which attend the process ; and this inspires him with
true charity towards those, whose ideas of Christianity
difTer very considerably from his own. Fully con-
vinced that faith in Jesus Christ, as it was preached
to the first converts, is the found? lion of our religion,
— and not the doctrine of hereditary guilt and de-
pravity— convinced that " other foundation no man

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 267

can lay, which shall be permanent, than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ," he is careful to separate the
wood, hay, stubble, from the gold, silver, and precious
stones, that have been built upon it ; yet he rejoices
in the assurance, that " if any man's work shall be
burnt, and he suffer loss, yet he himself shall be
saved." He acknowledges that christians of different
denominations possess the essentials, and he embraces
them as brethren ; though some may have inadvert-
ently added many superfluities, sometimes trifling,
often pernicious. But he is careful not to permit this
charitable disposition to degenerate into a spirit of in-
difference. He knows that truth is of the highest
importance, and that it inevitably leads to very
important consequences ; while it is in the nature
of errour to be a dangerous guide ; and though
charity hopeth all things, and believeth all things,
respecting the motives by which the advocates for
false systems are actuated, yet it does not prevent
him from perceiving that all false religion is an enemy
to the true. It infuses a multitude of wrong notions,
and directs the mind to wrong objects. Truth is
one, errour is infinite ; and the combined influence of
individual errours, like that combination of depravity
which you have ascribed to an original taint, may be-
come so extensively pernicious, as, in process of time,
to check and destroy, like baneful weeds, the be-
nignant influence of truth. This remark is strikingly
confirmed by the observations already made concern-
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2G8 LETTERS ON

ing the progress of infidelity, preceded and occasion-
ed by the no less extensive progress of superstition.

We are rapidly approaching, Sir, to that period in
which mankind will embrace a rational religion, or
none ; since men will reason, it is of high moment
that they reason right ; since they experience the use
of reason in their secular concerns, they cannot con-
ceive it to be useless in religion. In this age of rea-
soning, it is very necessary to be assured, that the
religion which comes from God is perfectly conform-
able to the dictates of reason ; it is of the first im-
portance to evince, that those religious opinions,
which have created the greatest difficulties, and be-
come the strongest impediments to embracing the
Gospel, constitute no part of the Gospel ; that they
are pernicious additions, which destroy the simplicity
of our religion, and cast a deep shade over its native
excellency. The philosophic enemies of Christianity
contemplate these adventitious blemishes with plea-
sure. They love to consider them as the most im-
portant parts of the christian religion. They also
affect to censure that class of christians, who deny
what are termed the peculiar doctrines, with as much
severity as the most orthodox believer. They are
hurt when they meet with a christian, who presumes
to be rational, and impertinently insinuate that he
cannot be a genuine christian. The reason is ob-
vious. The primitive unadulterated religion of Jesus
consisting of a few principles, as rational as they are

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 269

interesting, these opponents are disappointed when
Christianity is confined to them ; they are now de-
prived of objects against which they may display the
force of argument, or direct the shafts of ridicule.
They weep because there is nothing left to conquer.

Of the innumerable errours, which have tarnished
and disgraced our holy religion, the one which you
consider as lying at its foundation, appears, to the
writer of these letters, to be one of the most perni-
cious in its tendency, and the weakest in point of
evidence. The above animadversions will indicate
how little can be urged in its support, even by your
eloquence, on the principles of reason ; and there is
scarcely a doctrine that has been embraced by the
most enthusiastic visionary, which cannot boast equal,
if not greater authority from Scripture. A few, very
few detached passages, taken from their peaceful
stations, where their plain and simple meaning was
well understood by their connexions, have been as-
siduously collected together, and compelled, by forced
interpretations, to give a fallacious evidence in favour
of a doctrine they knew not, and with which they
had no concern. These are strong expressions, but
they are dictated by a conviction founded on the
strongest proofs.

The abettors of the calvinistic doctrines act con-
sistently, in being strenuous for the support of original
depravity ; for they justly view it as the foundatior
of a system, which they have mistaken for genuine

270 LETTERS ON

Christianity, and which cannot be subverted without
the demolition of the superstructure. The strongest
argument they can possibly produce in its favour, is
not to be found in positive evidence, but in its being
absolutely necessary to the support of other doctrines,
which they consider as of divine authority. Were
those doctrines in themselves capable of demonstra-
tion ; did they resemble first principles that must be
true, then the necessity of its relation to them would
furnish a plausible inference of its truth also ; but as
this is not the case, such a circuitous mode of reason-
ing cannot be admitted. All that can be acknow-
ledged is, that the doctrine of original sin is an essen-
tial part of their system ; but it remains to be proved,
that this is the system of genuine Christianity, and not
a fabric of human invention.

Those, who entertain very different ideas of the
nature of Christianity, not feeling this necessity, have
mostly been satisfied with rejecting the doctrine, as
superfluous ; or with suggesting a few general argu-
ments in opposition to it, without entering into a
minute investigation of the subject, or aiming at its
complete confutation.

But a tenet that is still received among the churches
of Europe ; that has been believed as an essential ar-
ticle of the christian faith, by a constellation of great
and wise men, in different ages; that is warmly
espoused by yourself, and preached at the present
hour by a very numerous and pious body of christians,

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 271

ought not to be dismissed without full examination,
and without the strongest evidences of its being un-
scriptural or irrational.

It appears to the author of these letters, that such
evidences can be produced. He first collected them
for his own satisfaction, and is desirous of stating
them to your conviction. He also was educated in
this fundamental article of the established faith ; but
he no sooner began to reason, than he felt insuffer-
able uneasiness that such a doctrine should be a reve-
lation from a God, who is benignity itself. He could
not possibly silence " those unbelieving doubts, which
are ever springing up in the heart." The doctrine
appeared so repugnant to the character of a Being,
whom we are ordered to love and adore, that a sin-
cere concern for the honour of that Being, led him
to inquire whether, of a truth, it was from God.
The letters, which he has the honour of addressing to
you, contain the result of this inquiry, which he sub-
mits to your serious consideration. He invites you
to search the arguments adduced with a freedom
similar to his own ; and promises to bow before the
force of evidence.

You will perceive by the respectful strain in which
these letters are written, that although the author
wishes to remain concealed, he scorns to abuse con-
cealment, by indulging in personal reflections. He
carefully and sincerely distinguishes between the man
and his doctrines, as he is convinced that they differ
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272 LETTERS ON

widely in the article of respectability. The conceal-
ment, it is true, annihilates every claim to personal
respect ; but if you should think his arguments worth
your notice, he is convinced that your manner will be
worthy of yourself, and consistent with that high re-
gard for your merits entertained by

A LAYMAN.

LETTER II.

Calvinistic Doctrine of Original Sin, or Total De-
pravity, stated. Not consistent with Scripture.
No evidence in the Sacred Writings, that Adam
was created with a perfect Nature, or that the sin-
ful Propensities of his Posterity were derived from
him.

Sir,
As the preceding letter was principally devoted to
the examination of your arguments, and proving the
insufficiency of the mode you have adopted to defend
the doctrine of hereditary depravity, it has unavoid-
ably assumed the appearance of a personal attack,
which cannot be pleasing to yourself, nor is it to the
author, who contends not for victory, nor wishes to
irritate, but sincerely aims at your conviction. Con-
fiding in the liberality of your disposition, and in the
accuracy of your judgment in cases where you dare

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 27$

to exercise it, he is not without hopes that the obser-
vations already suggested will not only have explained,
in a satisfactory manner, the cause why you cannot
possibly convince the skeptic of the futility of his
reasoning, but dispose you to doubt the validity of
your own. He flatters himself also, that if you will
accompany him through a more minute review of the
doctrine you so warmly espouse, than you may hith-
erto have taken, it will appear in every point of view
totally unworthy of your patronage. This expectation
is encouraged by several symptoms, which indicate
your dissatisfaction at a tenet you think it is your
duty to embrace and enforce. Your efforts to sup-
press the exercise of reason could only have been
made, in consequence of your perceiving something
unreasonable in the doctrine itself. You obviously
consider such a suppression as a sacrifice due to a
revealed truth; as a species of auto defe, the severity
of which you very sensibly feel. You frankly allow,
that " unbelieving doubts are ever springing up in the
heart." Could you but entertain the idea, that these
unbelieving doubts proceed from the understanding
rather than from the heart, instead of suppressing, you
would think it right to encourage them. Or, if you
choose to ascribe them to the heart, conceive that
they may be seated in the best of its affections, its
benevolence and its love of rectitude, and you will be
prepared to suspect, that there must be something
essentially wrong in your hypothesis, which can be

274 LETTERS ON

inimical to feelings like these. Such circumstances
strongly indicate, that you are open to conviction, and
that you would gladly renounce the doctrine, did you
not believe it to be of divine authority.

It is, good Sir, so painful for a sensible, conscien-
tious man to hold a faith, which is at variance with
his judgment, that it becomes an office of charity to
endeavour to relieve him from his embarrassment, by
collecting incontestible proofs, that such sentiments
cannot be true, and that it is the duty of every rea-
sonable being to dismiss them from his creed.

The strong objection which was the subject of ani-
madversion in the former letter, is by no means the
only one to be proposed to the doctrine which you
have unfortunately espoused ; and had you been more
successful in your attempts to confute it, your victory
would have been incomplete. There are many other
objections, which you have passed over in silence,
that deserve your most serious attention; and these
shall be considered in the present and some following
letters.

In order to do justice to the subject, it will be re-
quisite to state the doctrine of original sin, not in the
partial and delicate manner, which your regard for
its character has induced you to pursue, but as it is
boldly expressed in the creeds and confessions of
those, who have enforced it with synodical authority.

That no suspicion may be entertained of exaggera-
tion, or of a design to " set down aught in malice,"

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 275

the catechism composed by the assembly of divines
shall be our guide. In that summary of christian
faith the subject is thus treated.

" God created man in his own image ; in know-
ledge, righteousness, and holiness ; with dominion
over his creatures. When God created man, he en-
tered into a covenant with him upon condition of
perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.

"Our first parents being left to the freedom of their
own will, fell from the estate wherein they were
created, by sinning against God.

" Sin is any want of conformity to, or a transgress-
on of the law of God.

" The sin whereby our first parents fell from the
estate wherein they were created, was the eating the
forbidden fruit.

" The covenant being made with Adam, not only
for himself but for his posterity, all mankind descend-
ing from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him,
and fell with him in the first transgression.

" The fall did bring man into a state of sin and
misery.

" The sinfulness of that state whereinto man fell,
consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of
original righteousness, the corruption of his whole
nature, which is commonly called original sin, togeth-
er with all the actual transgressions which proceed
from it.

276 LETTERS ON

" All mankind, by the fall, lost communion with
God ; are under his wrath and curse, and so made
liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself,
and to the pains of hell for ever. This constitutes
the misery of that estate whereinto man fell.

" God, out of his mere good pleasure, from all
eternity elected some to everlasting life, did enter
into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the
estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state
of salvation by a Redeemer ; and thus God did not
leave all mankind to perish in a state of sin and
misery."*

Although the doctrine of original sin, as it is taught
in most of the protestant churches in Europe, is es-
sentially the same, yet they indulge to a variety in
their amplifications. The Walloon churches, or those
of the French protestants, for example, enlarge con-
siderably upon the moral incapacity of man in con-
sequence of Adam's fall. Thus to the question ;
" Are all our works so reprobated that they cannot
merit any favour before God?" the answer is, "All
the works performed by the natural man (de notre
propre nature) are vicious in themselves, consequent-
ly they must displease God, and be condemned by

* Had these letters been privately conveyed to Mr WiIberforce,so
large a portion of the Assembly's Catechism would not have been
transcribed ; but as they are submitted to public inspection, some
reader may possibly be gratified with being introduced to an ac-
quaintance with an article of faith he has been professing all his
life, without paying the least attention to its nature.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 277

him." Minister. " You say that before God has
received us into his favour we cannot avoid sinning,
as a bad tree necessarily brings forth bad fruit ?"
Catechumen. " Doubtless, for however beautiful our
works may appear externally, they are inevitably
sinful, because the heart, which God regards, is cor-
rupt."*

The German protestants tell us, in the Heidelburg
confession, that we are naturally prone to hate both
God and our neighbour; that we are totally incapable
of any good, and inclined to every evil, before we are
born again by the Spirit of God. It is asked of the
catechumen, " Is not God unjust, when he requires
of man what we are not able to perform ?" and it is
answered, " Not in the least. For God had made
man perfect, so that he was able to fulfil the law ; but
he has deprived himself and all his posterity of this
power, by listening to the suggestions of the devil."
Ques. " Will God leave this disobedience and apos-
tacy unpunished ?" Ans. " By no means ; but he
will manifest his terrible wrath, both against original
guilt and actual transgression ; and he will punish
both by a righteous judgment in time and in eternity ;
for it is written, cursed is every one that continueih not
in all things which are written in the book of the law,
to do them.'''' Ques. " But is not God compassionate
also ?" Ans. " Yes, God is compassionate, but he is
also just; and justice demands that sin, which is com-

* See Les Articles de la Foi, Dimanche \9me.

278 LETTERS ON

mitted against his infinite majesty, should be punished
to the utmost ; that is, with the everlasting punish-
ment of both body and soul."

These, Sir, are the sentiments imposed upon us,
by a conspiracy of fallible men, as the oracles of the
living God ! These are the glad tidings of salvation
which a merciful Redeemer came to proclaim! God
so loved the world, that he sent his Son to preach
these horrours, from which the multitude cannot pos-
sibly escape ! This is the last and best dispensation
from him, who will not always chide, nor hold his
anger forever ! If these doctrines be true, and if it
be true that the Divine Being delighteth not in the
death of a sinner, what insufferable violence must this
vindictive justice commit upon the compassion of his
nature !

But it is time to inquire what foundation there is
for this horrid hypothesis? A doctrine so tremendous,
that it harrows up one's soul as we are stating it,
ought to be established upon the firmest foundation.
It ought to be proclaimed from heaven by a voice
which all can hear, and no one misinterpret ; and all
the powers of natural reason, and the best feelings of
humanity, ought to be brought into submission by
some incontestable authority.

You confess that it is difficult to reconcile this
doctrine with the principles of reason ; but you think
that it is taught in the Scriptures, and countenanced
by the moral state of mankind. We will therefore

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 279

first consider the evidence from Scripture, and inquire
whether that be so convincing as to deserve being
placed in competition with the powerful objections,
which natural reason suggests. By pursuing this
plan, your reluctance to attend to the voice of reason
may possibly be subdued.

The doctrine of original sin, as stated above, pre-
supposes the perfection of Adam's nature before the
fall ; teaches the depravity of human nature, in con-
sequence of the fall ; and the eternal punishment of
the majority of the human race, in consequence of
this depravity.

Respecting the first article, if we had been taught
to understand by the perfection of his nature, Adam's
innocence, and the rectitude of his disposition, simply,
the position would have been admissible. He must
have been innocent before he was guilty, and his dis-
positions upright before they were perverted. But
much more has been understood. It has been assert-
ed, that the powers and propensities of our first pa-
rents were vastly superiour to the present standard of
human nature ; once " beams etherial," now " sullied
and absorbed." These, however, are mere phan-
toms of the brain, unsupported by a single proof. The
sacred historian informs us, that God made man in his
own image. Catechisms, not Scripture, have added,
in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Now the
only instance upon record of knowledge; is, that of
his having given names to the various animals, as they
25

2S0 LETTERS ON

were brought before him, which is too circumscribed
to be worthy of an encomium; and as to his righteous-
ness and holiness, the Scriptures are perfectly silent.
It is true, Adam was created with a thirst for know-
ledge, which induced him to eat of the " tree to be
desired to make one wise ;" but he manifested his
ignorance, in not discovering the artifices of the evil
one, and in imagining that he could improve his situa-
tion by disobeying the divine command.

The expression " let us make man in our image,"
has been variously interpreted. It has been con-
sidered by some as referring to the spirituality of our
natures, or to our possessing an immaterial principle,
in distinction from every other class of animated
beings. Whoever admits this sense, must also admit
that it is equally applicable to the offspring of Adam,
in their present dishonoured state. This, of conse-
quence, is not the high dignity forfeited by the fall.
Some imagine, that the expression relates to the ex-
alted powers conferred upon man, in distinction from
the lower creation, by which he is rendered capable
of mental improvements and mental enjoyments. In
this sense also, is the term applicable to the offspring
of Adam, even in these days of their supposed de-
generacy.

The Scriptures themselves obviously confine the
expression to the universal dominion given to the hu-
man race over all the other creatures of God. "And
God said, let us make man in our image, and after

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 2S1

our likeness; and let him have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
thing that creepeth upon the earth ; so God created
man in his own image," he. In consequence of this
wonderful superiority in his mental powers, is man
hecome the sovereign of creation, and able to render
every part subservient to his will. He is able to
subdue the strength of the strongest, and bow their
necks to his yoke ; he arrests the flight of the swift-
est, and exceeds, by his inventions, the craft of the
most crafty. " He has more wisdom than the fowls
of the air, and more understanding than the beasts of
the field ;" and thus may he be viewed as the vice-
gerent on the earth, the representative of the Uni-
versal Sovereign. This interpretation is also as ap-
plicable to the offspring of Adam, as to their first
parent. In no sense, therefore, can the passage be
confined to that state of high perfection ascribed to
Adam during his innocence ; and yet it is the strong-
est argument in favour of the position, that has ever
been adduced.

Another passage of Scripture has indeed been
pressed into the service, which is, the observation of
the preacher in Ecclesiastes ; " God made man up-
right; but they found out many inventions." It will
be unnecessary to detain you in attempting to prove
that the preacher is not, in this place, speaking of
Adam's transgression; but simply making observations

282

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upon common life; that by man we are to understand
mankind in general ; for we are told, they found out
many inventions ; nor is the phrase in any way appli-
cable to that single transgression of our first parents ;
the invention manifested in this transaction was found
out by Satan, by which Adam was unfortunately de-
ceived.

Not being forbidden by any express declarations in
Scripture, we may innocently presume that the powers
and faculties of Adam and Eve were as limited as our
own, and that their propensities to good and evil were
perfectly similar. Whence comes it, otherwise, that
they should fall an easy prey to so slight a tempta-
tion ? The conflict they had to sustain, in order to
manifest their obedience to the divine will, was far
inferiour to many, over which multitudes of their pos-
terity have triumphed. If we consider the Mosaic
account of this event as a literal fact, and not allego-
rical, the temptation was scarcely beyond the powers
of a schoolboy to resist ; their ready seduction was
totally inconsistent with that superiority, that exalta-
tion of character arbitrarily ascribed to them. To
manifest that a supposition of this kind must be des-
titute of evidence, we have only to recollect that no
opportunity could possibly occur for their displaying
this elevation of their natures, had they really possess-
ed it. No scenes could possibly present themselves
favourable to the exercise of numberless virtues, which
have adorned so many of their offspring. In the in-

TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

283

fantile state of the world, it was the easiest thing in
nature to be perfectly innocent, for scarcely could a
vice be committed. When the first pair were the
only inhabitants of the globe, there could be no temp-
tation to fraud, oppression, deceit, avarice ; nothing
to excite anger, jealousies, envyings, lawless ambition,
or to infuse implacable malice. Social and relative
duties were the same, and circumscribed within the
narrowest bounds. No drunkenness nor adultery,
nor theft, nor covetousness, could possibly constitute
a part of their vices. Benevolence to every creature
newly subjugated to their will was so natural, that
they must have been monsters not to possess the dis-
position. They could not have experienced a series
of vexations and disappointments, to irritate their
minds, and render them peevish or discontented ; nor
have suffered an accumulation of unmerited evils,
which might tempt them to doubt the existence of a
Deity, or suspect the wisdom and beneficence of his
government. Placed in a garden replenished with
delights, by the hand of their Creator; and in a world
where every thing new, grand, and wonderful, burst
upon the astonished sight, must not the lowest of their
degraded offspring have felt an impulse of admiration,
love, and gratitude ?

Where then are the evidences of a superiority,

which would render our first parents a different class

of beings from their offspring ? What proofs, that

they were qualified, by the transcendency of their in-

25*

284 LETTERS ON

tellectual and moral powers, to associate with angels,
and hold special communion with God ? The posi-
tion is as void of evidence as it is of probability ; and
though it may be viewed as the chief corner-stone
of your superstructure, we perceive, upon close ex-
amination, that it is destitute of solidity. Sir, it is
porous, and crumbles at the touch.

Nor does the sacred history present us with stronger
proofs, that the children of Adam derived sinful pro-
pensities from his first transgression. The Scriptures
represent Adam as the parent of a mortal race, and
they ascribe this law of mortality to his disobedience.
But let us remember, that as life is the free gift of
God, the continuation of our existence to a perpetuity
cannot be claimed by us as a natural right. We may
add, that it would prove a perpetual curse before the
minds of men were fully prepared for so vast a de-
sign ; and however repugnant it may be to our feel-
ings, there is neither injustice nor the imputation of
an unnecessary severity in the temporary dissolution
of our frames. Infinite wisdom can best decide con-
cerning the mode of introducing this law of our disso-
lution, and infinite wisdom is able to convert the
greatest seeming evil into the most substantial good.
But we are not taught by any passage of sacred writ,
that the vices of men, or their vicious propensities, are
inheritances derived from the offence of Adam. This
idea is merely an induction from expressions, which
were intended to convey a very different meaning.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 285

Had it been the object of the sacred writings to
make us acquainted with so singular a fact, it surely
would not have been passed over in total silence by-
Moses in the account given us of the first transgression.
Shall we suppose him to have been inspired to write
the history of the fall, and that he should have omit-
ted the chief circumstance ? Or that it should have
been withheld from him, and revealed at a very re-
mote period to others, who were not appointed to be
the historians of the event ? The supposition is ex-
travagant. This is unquestionably the properest place
for the narrative, but here we find it not. The first
sin recorded after the grand offence was the murder
of Abel by his brother Cain ; and this horrid instance
of fratricide is ascribed to the passions of anger and
jealousy, which have multiplied murders since that
event ; there is not the most distant insinuation, that
those passions were implanted by the disobedience of
his father, When the wickedness of the world was
so great that, according to the strong figurative lan-
guage of the Scripture, " it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at
his heart ;" we are not informed that the sin of Adam
was the cause of this wickedness, or that it grieved
the Lord that he had permitted man to pollute his
offspring. The event is represented as arising from
the progressive degeneracy of men, " as they began
to multiply upon the face of the earth," that is, to
the contagion of evil example, and not to the develope-

286 LETTERS ON

ment of that grand germ of corruption implanted in
the heart of man at the fall.

Again, as you allow that Jesus Christ came into
the world to repair the ruin of the fall, it is natural to
imagine that he would, in the course of his ministry,
have made us clearly acquainted with the nature and
extent of this ruin. We are assured, that the world
was in a state of sin and misery ; but the derived cor-
ruption of human nature in consequence of the fall,
is not intimated by the author of the christian dispen-
sation, nor was it, previously to his appearance. We
find no declaration, that he came to save a sinful
world from hereditary sin. This doctrine is not
mentioned in the commission given to the Apostles to
preach repentance and remission of sins ; nor do we
discover, in the execution of their commission, that
they either lament the state of mankind, or upbraid
the children of Adam, on account of the depravity
derived from him.

Thus it is incontestable, that this article of your
creed is not mentioned where it was most natural to
expect it ; neither is it enforced by those who must
have been the best informed, and who alone could
possess authority to propagate it.

How, Sir, can you account for so very singular a
circumstance ? How conies it that a doctrine, deem-
ed so essential to Christianity, should have been for-
saken or omitted by those, whose peculiar province it
was to place it in the most conspicuous point of view ?

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 2S7

How comes its foundation to rest solely on the inter-
pretation given to a few phrases scattered in different
parts of the Old and New Testament, which from
their connexion, and from the manner in which they
were uttered, are not only capable of a different con-
struction but demand it ? Expressions, some of which
were obviously the strong language natural to occa-
sional emotions, some proverbial, some descriptive of
particular classes and characters of men, without any
reference to the sin of Adam ; and some were spoken
by persons whom it would be ridiculous to suppose
possessed of inspiration.

LETTER III.

Texts of Scripture examined. The Notion of a
Total, Hereditary Depravity confuted by Obser-
vation and Experience. Stronger Proofs, that
Men are upright and perfect, than that they are
totally depraved.

Sir,
The passages you quote, in support of your senti-
ments, illustrate and confirm the truth of the above
observation ; for not one of them has the most distant
relation to the subject.* They all refer to a state of

* They are the following ;

The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. What is
roan that he sIioiaJc! be clean ? and he which is born of a woman,

288 LETTERS ON

actual depravity, without reference to its cause ; and
they describe, in striking language, those vicious pro-
pensities too frequently observable both in individuals
and in large communities, which may be the result of
perverse education, evil habits, the force of bad ex-
ample, and other causes which are known actually to
exist, and whose influence is universally acknow-
ledged, without insinuating that they are the streams,
which necessarily flow from the original transgression
of Adam. This propensity to sinful errours is fully
expressed by " the imagination of man's heart is evil
from his youth;" and to this is it necessarily confined,
if you will not compel it to start from its context in
order to support an hypothesis. The phrase is men-
tioned twice in the book of Genesis. In the first
instance it refers to that accumulated wickedness, that
acquired corruption, which preceded the flood ; when
" God saw that the wickedness of man was great in
the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually." In the

that he should be righteous ? How much more abominable and filthy
is man, which drinketh iniquity like water ? The Lord looked down
from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside ; they
are altogether become filthy ; there is none that doeth good, no not
one. Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from
sin ? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,
who can know it ? Behold, I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin
hath my mother conceived me. We were by nature the children of
wrath, even as others, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind. O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death ?

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 289

second instance, it is expressive of the weak and imper-
fect state of our natures, which, instead of exciting
the divine wrath, is a subject of his commiseration.
" The Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground for man's sake, for the imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth ; neither will I
again smite any more every living thing, as I have
done."* Your second and third quotations are rather
unfortunate ; for as it has been judiciously remark-
ed,f they are no revelations from God, but exagge-
rated representations made of human infirmities by
Eliphaz, the Temanite,J which provoked even the
patient Job to reply, " miserable comforters are you
all ; — Shall vain words have an end, or what embold-
eneth thee that thou answerest ?" &c. Again, " ye
are all forgers of lies ; ye are all physicians of no
value ; Oh, that you would altogether hold your
peace, and it should be your wisdom."

Let this instance, Sir, of the absurdities and incon-
sistencies which result from an indiscriminate quota-
tion from Scripture be added to those mentioned in
a preceding Letter ; and let them exert their influence
to dissuade you from a practice, which is the fertile
source of every errour ; which renders the Oracles of
Truth as equivocal and contradictory as the Delphic
Oracles or the Sibyl's Leaves.

* Genesis vi. 5. lb. viii. 21.

t See a Review of Mr Wilber force's Treatise, by T. Belsham,
page 43.

i Job xv. 14, 16. lb. xvi.2, 3.

290 LETTERS ON

As all the other passages you have quoted relate
merely to the state in which either individuals, or
large bodies of men, may be occasionally reduced,
they are equally irrelevant to our subject. They ex-
press truths which no one has ever disputed, but they
give you no assistance in forming your hypothesis ex-
planatory of these truths. Th> -y mention facts alone;
and it is the hypothetic abettors of an extravagant
system alone, that presume to trace the cause to the
sin of our first parents.

You may perhaps still argue, that the declaration
of David, " Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in
sin did my mother conceive me ;" and that of the
Apostle, "we were by nature children of wrath, even
as others," are too explicit to be included in the above
remark. We will, therefore, pay them more particu-
lar attention.

The expression of David is generally allowed to
be a part of the penitential Psalm he composed, upon
his having been guilty of the sins of adultery and
murder. It is manifestly the strong language of con-
trition and seif-abhorrence. He adopted a phrase
proverbial among the Jews, by which he intimated,
that his vicious propensities were so great, that had
he been born with them they could not have been
stronger. Such terms are common in all countries,
and cannot be mistaken by natives and contempora-
ries, whatever interpretations they may suffer from the
comments of foreigners, or from the changes which

TOTAL, DEPRAVITY. 291

may in process of time take place in the modes of
expression. Let us suppose, Sir, that you, in the
warmth of your laudable zeal for the abolition of the
slave trade, should declare in the Senate, that those
who persevere to carry on that detestable commerce
must be devils incarnate. We will suppose your
speech to descend to posterity, and that the express-
ion should meet with a commentator, who explained
the terms in their literal sense, seriously adducing them
as proofs, that they were not men, but devils in the
form of men, who were used to engage in the traffic ;
we will suppose him to conclude, that it was custom-
ary for evil spirits to assume the human shape, that
they might man the ships from Liverpool and other
places, in order to deal in human flesh, torment the
inoffensive negroes, and transport them into wretched
captivity for the sake of gain ; would you not smile,
though you might be disposed to excuse the blunder
on account of the pointed satire it contained ? That
the terms being born in sin were equally proverbial
among the Jews, is evident from a similar expression
being employed by the Pharisees, when they ques-
tioned the man who had been blind, concerning the
manner in which he had received his sight. Upon his
asserting, " if this man [Jesus] was not of God, he
could do nothing ;" they answered, " thou wast alto-
gether born in sins, and dost thou teach us ?"*

* John ix. 33.

26

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Nothing could be more obvious than that the ex-
pression was familiarly used as a mark of ignominy
and reproach. It was applied to those, who were
really degenerate, or who were looked down upon
with contempt as the refuse of the people. In the
deep abasement of his soul, David appropriated it to
himself, as in the haughtiness of his soul, the Pharisee
applied it to another. That the expression could not
have the most distant reference to the doctrine of
original sin, is most evident from this second mode of
application ; for the Pharisee, proud as he was, could
not have the arrogance to deem himself or his sect to
be exempt from a state of degradation, that necessa-
rily involved all mankind.

Respecting the other passage, "and were by nature
children of wrath, even as others,"* let us suffer the
Scriptures to explain themselves, without the inter-
ference of crude ideas of our own. They tell us that
" the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." We
learn from history, sacred and profane, that the world
was plunged into the depth of corruption and depra-
vity, before the appearance of the Son of God. Of
this depravation, St Paul gives us a dreadful summa-
ry in his Epistle to the Romans.f The same Apostle
writing to the Ephesians, who were also Gentiles,
expatiates upon the regenerating nature of the chris-
tian doctrine ; and draws the contrast between their

'Ephes. ii. 3. t Ch. i. 21. passim.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 293

present and their former state. "You hath he quick-
ened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein,
in time past, ye walked according to the course of this
world, according to the Prince of the power of the
air, the Spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience ; among whom we all had our conversa-
tion in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, even as others."

The word nature, it is well known, has various
significations ; and the precise idea to be affixed to it
can only be ascertained by the subject in question, or
by circumstances relative to it. Sometimes it signi-
fies custom, sometimes prevailing disposition, some-
times particular laws in the physical, intellectual, 01
moral world; sometimes characters that distinguish
one class from another, or discriminate individuals in
the same class. The context necessarily applies the
word to that state and situation in which the Ephe-
sians, together with the whole Gentile world, were
placed before their conversion to Christianity ; and it
points out the cause of their having been children of
wrath, even as others ; not on account of Adam's
transgression ; not on account of this original taint
derived from thence, but on account of transgressions
of their own. " Ye walked in times past according

to the course of this world ;" " among whom also

we had our conversation in times past," &ic. Is it
possible for signification to be more explicit and de-
cisive ?

294 LKTTERS ON

You have remarked that assailants have generally
the advantage over the defendant ; but surely, Sir,
you should have made some exceptions and limita-
tions according to the mode of defence that may be
adopted. If it be permitted to collect from all quar-
ters, and pour forth a multitude of detached scriptural
expressions, the defence is perfectly easy; it consists
simply in quotations and assertions ; whereas, the la-
bour of proving, that the true signification of these
passages is perverted, and that they are not applicable
to the subject, falls to the lot of the assailant. A
mound is thus thrown up with expedition ; and
though it has no solidity in itself, it serves to retard
the progress of the assailant, who is condemned to
remove it.

Having shown that no evidence, in support of the
hereditary depravity of mankind, can be legitimately
deduced from Scripture ; and that those passages,
which you have manifestly mistaken for a cloud of
witnesses, are dissipated like mists, as you approach
and penetrate them, we will now examine the merits
of the arguments, you have urged from experience
and observation. These you consider as being unan-
swerable ; and confiding in the strength of your
proofs, you pronounce every one to be obstinately
dull, who does not admit them.

The cause of your mistake respecting the argu-
ment, and also the capacities of your opponents, has
already been pointed out. It has been proved, that

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 295

you have hastily blended conclusions and inferences
with facts, and imagined that whoever admits the lat-
ter, must yield to the former. We might readily
concede, that there is universally and permanently as
much wickedness in the world, as you have represent-
ed ; we might grant, that the principles of mankind
are totally corrupted, and that their practice is in
every way correspondent ; we might, in short, accept
your statement, or even prefer that of St Paul, which
is much stronger, and yet deny that an original depra-
vity was imbibed in consequence of Adam's trans-
gression. We might allow, that all mankind had
corrupted their ways, and not suppose that they were
born in sin ; and were it a literal fact, that " there is
none that doeth good, no, not one," we might perti-
nently attribute it to that progressive depravity of
which humanity is capable. But we are not under
the obligation of making such large concessions. All
the proofs you have produced do not demand it, nor
will a strict attention to the general character and
conduct of men, admit it. All that you have said ; all
that the great Apostle has said ; all that the sacred
historian has recorded, concerning that universal cor-
ruption, which occasioned the deluge, relate to par-
ticular periods, circumstances, and characters, and are
no more to be considered as the genuine history of the
human heart, in its habitual dispositions, than storms,
tempests and pestilence, indicate the general state of
26*

296

LETTERS ON*

the atmosphere ; or conflagrations indicate the natural
malignity of fire.

It is an acknowledged maxim, corruptio optimi est
pessima. Whatever possesses very limited powers,
cannot prove, in its worst estate, extensively detri-
mental ; whatever possesses extensive powers, how-
. ever excellent, may in certain situations be rendered
dreadful. Those powers and propensities character-
istic of the human mind, which in their natural and
placid operations are productive of much good, con-
stitute the bonds of society, relieve distresses, and
advance happiness a thousand ways, may, by being
perverted, spread desolation and horrour. But these
perversions are extraordinaries ; they are excesses,
which distort and deform the human heart, and not
faithful portraits of its real character, or native pro-
pensities.

In the midst of the greatest excesses and most
flagrant immoralities, much good is still observable.
In the worst of times there are many laudable excep-
tions to the general depravity of character, and in the
worst of characters some remaining virtues. Vice
being not only pernicious in its tendency, but often
quick in its effects, alarms, strikes, and we instantly
complain. Virtue being in its nature placid, and, like
our aliments, productive of habitual health by imper-
ceptible operations, in its usual tenour scarcely pro-
duces an encomium. It is some extraordinary and
almost romantic virtue alone, that has power to arouse

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 297

our attention. These are facts, which cannot be de-
nied ; but they could not exist, if the doctrine of
original sin, as stated in catechisms, were true ; they
could not exist, if man were naturally inclined to hate
both God and his neighbour ; if he were incapable of
doing any good, and if he cannot avoid sinning, more
than a bad tree can be productive of good fruit ; or
if the human heart were " tainted with sin, radically,
and to the very core." If this were the wretched
state of man, the pollution would be universal through-
out the species, and so complete in each individual,
that our natures would exhibit a mass of corruption
inconsistent with a state of society. We should be
as the fierce beasts of the forests ; and the " pesti-
lence," instead of "walking in darkness," would stalk
forth at noonday.

No one, who has studied the heart of man free
from the bias of systematic prejudices, has been able
to discover such universal marks of innate depravity.
Every attentive observer will contemplate a great va-
riety of excellent qualities diffused over the human
species. He will notice that where the mind has
been properly informed, and where self-love is not
predominant to a shameful excess, it knows not the
dominion of evil propensities ; nor will he perceive
the smallest traces of inherent, unprovoked, heredita-
ry malice. He will perceive that in every case,
where this calumniated mind has emerged from igno-
rance, and has acquired the power of discrimination.

298 LETTERS ON

it learns to know what is right, it acquires a delicate
sense of what is right, loves and approves of it, se-
verely censures and reprobates its contrary, unless
some selfish pursuit, or ardent desire of immediate
gratification, shall have hardened the heart, for the
instant, or perverted the judgment. We have in-
stances innumerable in the history of human life,
where the benevolent principle operates with wonder-
ful energy ; in which the human mind manifests itself
to be liberal, generous, compassionate, forgiving ; in
which it has been impelled by exquisite sympathy to
brave dangers, and face death itself, in order to suc-
cour the distressed. But as this subject has been so
well treated by another writer, I will urge it no
farther.*

You have only two ways of solving this difficulty ;
the first is, to ascribe every remaining good observ-
able in the unregenerate heart, to the influence of
divine grace. But this will render the grace of God
much more diffused than is consistent with your gene-
ral system. It will break down that barrier, which is
so assiduously erected between the real christian and
the unconverted ; and yet, if the mere moral man and
nominal christian be supposed destitute of these divine
influences, to what can we ascribe the good qualities
so frequently observable in the professedly wicked,
which, in some instances, have put the professed
people of God themselves out of countenance ?

* See Belsham's Review of Mr Wilberforce's Treatise, Letter IV.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 299

The second method is to deny the facts ; and, in
the face of the strongest evidence, to assert, with the
Walloon church, that all the works of the natural
man are vicious in themselves, consequently that they
must displease God, and be condemned by him ; that
its best deeds are only splendida peccata ; and how-
ever beautiful they may appear to the undistinguish-
ing eye, they are inevitably sinful, because the heart
is corrupt. But this mode of evading the difficulty
is a sacrifice to hypothesis, which no one who pre-
tends to reason, will ever admit. Predetermined
that the doctrine of universal corruption must be true,
and shall be true, the supporters of such an opinion
render themselves wilfully blind to the strongest evi-
dences of the contrary. They resemble some disci-
ples of the acataleptic, or incomprehensible school,
among the ancients, who denied the reality of motion,
because its existence would entirely confute their
system. Common sense knows not of any splendid
sins, excepting such actions as are performed with a
design to impose upon mankind, or which spring from
unworthy motives. Ambition, vanity, hypocrisy, may
he guilty of them ; but where the heart of man is in-
cited by the love of man to deeds of justice, liberali-
ty, compassion, and mercy, they must be sterling.
Such deeds cannot be counterfeit, and he that gives
them the name, knows not the nature of coin.

You strenuously maintain, Sir, the necessity of re-
generating grace ; you acknowledge this grace to be

300 LETTERS ON

perfectly free in its operations, and yet you inform the
poor impenitent sinner, that he must earnestly suppli-
cate for its communications ; but according to the
principles now advanced, this very prayer, proceed-
ing from a corrupt heart, must be offensive to the
Deity, a punishable sin ; the humblest supplication
which the natural man can utter, instead of procuring
the desired blessing, may render it still more remote.
If your good sense should preserve you from such an
absurd extreme, then you must be compelled to ad-
mit, that the natural man is able, without any imme-
diate interposition of divine grace, occasionally to
imitate the good works of the true children of God
so closely, that it is impossible to distinguish the one
from the other ; and the carnal man, unpurged from
the corruptions of the fall, becomes a formidable rival
to the spiritual man, with all his superiour advantages ;
consequently this grace is not so absolutely necessary
as you have conceived ; or it is more liberally diffused
than your system can possibly grant.

The assertion, that we are naturally prone to hate
both God and man, is also an extravagant assertion.
Considered in an absolute, unqualified sense, it is a
stigma which reflects dishonour upon the hypothesis
which gave it birth, or upon the hearts of the theolo-
gians who first gave it a place in their creeds.

It is granted that our commerce with the world
presents us with too many instances of jealousies,
envyings, malice, revenge, he. generated from rival-

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 301

ships, the disappointment of unreasonable desires,
irritations at supposed injuries ; but with no instances
whatever of inherent, hereditary, unprovoked malice;
and whenever these passions are carried to excess,
whatever be their cause, common phraseology passes
an encomium upon our species, by terming the dispo-
sition inhuman.

The hatred, which wicked men may be said to en-
tertain against their maker, is also an acquired, not a
natural vice. It can only proceed from the strength
of corrupt affections, or from their entertaining erro-
neous ideas of the divine character. When inordi-
nate desires arise, which the subject is determined to
indulge at all events, the precepts of religion and
morality are rendered irksome to him ; the idea of
the divine presence and inspection becomes as insup-
portable, as the presence of a tutor or monitor to a
disciple, whose mind is bent upon some illicit pursuit.
Under the influence of this perverted disposition, he
may possibly "say in his heart, There is no God;" or
becoming hardened in his iniquity, he may inquire,
" Who is the Lord, that I should serve him ?" But
this is an adventitious, perverted state of mind. It
is so far from being natural to man, that many con-
flicts must be maintained before this conquest of pro-
faneness can become complete. The infant mind
knows it not ; early youth knows it not ; it is alone
the dreadful acquirement of the determined sinner.

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Again, unworthy conceptions formed of the divine
character, may also inspire an indifference, perhaps an
hatred. When men consider their Creator altogether
such an one as themselves, it is not surprising that they
should lose their respect for him ; and those frivolities
which are deemed essential to his service, naturally
bring his service into disrepute. This has been
already considered as a principal cause of the atheism
so prevalent in a neighbouring nation. Some dog-
mata, also deemed essential to Christianity, by repre-
senting the Deity as implacable, revengeful, severe
beyond the bounds of reason and justice, are not cal-
culated to inspire love or filial veneration. Love has
for its object, qualities which appear amiable and at-
tractive. Hatred, the reverse ; its objects are quali-
ties apparently injurious and repugnant. According
to the ideas cherished of the moral perfections of the
Deity, will be the habitual state of mind concerning
him. Is there a being, can such a being exist, who
habitually contemplates the great God as the source
of every possible excellence, as the benevolent Father
of universal nature, and yet entertain the disposition
of hatred against him ? If indeed any one should
become a proselyte to the doctrine for which you are
so strong an advocate, without presuming to entertain
the hopes of being one of the elect ; if he believes
that he shall finally be condemned for sins committed
before his existence, and for actual transgressions
which he could not possibly avoid ; while he beholds

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others not more deserving, made participants of that
grace which is denied to him ; — you may urge upon
him the sovereignty of God, with all your eloquence ;
it is an attribute he will never adore ; nor can you
point out to him any one that is entitled to his love.
He may hate ; such an offence may come ; but wo
to the principles that gave it existence !

You have cited the humours and froward disposi-
tions of children as proofs of your hypothesis. Take
their sudden gushes of passion, or occasional instances
of perverseness, as your argument, and we will op-
pose the innocence, simplicity, amiableness, confiden-
tial friendships habitual to them, in support of ours.
But these concessions are much too liberal, for we
may securely maintain, that the greater part of that
frowardness of temper, you behold as a mark of
original depravity, is to be ascribed to a perverse edu-
cation from the earliest infancy. That sublime fabu-
list Milton, whose poetic fictions, concerning the fall,
have frequently been mistaken for Scripture history,
represents Satan infusing pernicious dreams into the
ear of Eve, while sleeping in the bower ; he may
possibly have borrowed the idea from the conduct of
mothers and nurses, who so frequently infuse poison
into the minds of their infants while they are yet in
their cradles. One of the first perceptions of the
infant, is its unbounded influence over its indiscreet
guardians, whose fond indulgences soon generate, in-
crease, and multiply perverse desires, until the feeblest
27

o04 LETTERS ON

of all beings becomes the most tyrannical. Thus do
their ignorance and imprudence pervert the young
mind at the earliest period, and when the pernicious
fruits appear, the mischief is unjustly thrown from
themselves back to our primitive ancestors. When,
Sir, you contemplate the malignant effects of a per-
verse education, at every period of early life, and
behold the degree of good, powerfully operative in the
human mind, under every possible disadvantage, will
you not acknowledge, that Providence has infused a
large share of virtuous disposition into the human
heart, in order to counteract the mischiefs, which the
professed guardians of the human heart are hourly
committing ?

Before we quit the infantile character, permit me
to call to your recollection a passage in Scripture, the
beauty of which is peculiarly striking. It is in Mat.
xix. verses 13, 14. "Then were there brought unto
him [unto Jesus] little children ; that he should put
his hands on them and pray ; and the disciples re-
buked them; but Jesus said, Suffer little children, and
forbid them not, to come unto me ; for of such is the
kingdom of heaven."

What, Sir, could Jesus, the Son of an incensed
God, the second person in the Trinity, and who, as
God, must be, equally with the Father, offended at
the first transgression, in which these children were
involved ; whose vindictive justice also required the
eternal punishment of these little heirs of wrath, these

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 305

embryos of iniquity, these tainted germs of every
thing that is vile and worthless ; could he invite them
to approach his presence ? Could he pronounce, Of
such is the kingdom of heaven ? Why, Sir, your
creed tells you, that " all mankind, by the fall of our
first parents, lost communion with God, are under his
wrath and curse, and so made liable to the pains of
hell forever!"

Oh, Reason, how art thou humbled by system,
when compelled to employ thy powers to reconcile
contrarieties like these !

Much, much more could be urged upon this sub-
ject ; but if you dare to consult your reason, the
above must prove sufficient. If not, we will only
subjoin that those very Scriptures, the perversion of
which constitutes the foundation of your faith in uni-
versal depravity, absolutely require you to renounce
it. They speak as frequently and as copiously of
righteousness, uprightness, perfection, purity of heart
observable among mankind, as they are free of their
corrections and reproofs at the instances of degene-
racy. "A wicked man," says Solomon, " hardeneth
his face ; but as for the upright, he directs his
way."* " Judge me, O Lord, according to my
righteousness" says the very David, who was con-
ceived in sin, " and according to mine integrity that
is in me. My defence is of God, who saveth the

* Prov. xxi. 29.

306

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upright in heart."* Again, " Shout for joy, ye that
are upright in heart ; all the upright in heart shall
glory. "f " Mark the perfect man, and behold the up-
right, for the end of that man is peace. "J

In the midst of the general depravity which occa-
sioned the deluge, it is said of Noah, that he was "a
just man, and perfect in his generation. "§ Although
the mistaken friends of Job indulged their unjust cen-
sures against him, yet the sacred historian assures us,
that he was "perfect and upright, one that feared God,
and eschewed evil."|| And Solomon bore testimony
of David, that he walked " in righteousness and up-
rightness of heart before God. "IT

Many other passages might be quoted of a similar
nature, and were we to adopt your mode of reason-
ing, we should infer from such declarations, that man-
kind are naturally perfect and upright. You would
then be compelled to qualify and explain, in order to
protect your hypothesis. Permit us to use the same
liberty with the passages you have advanced, in order
to protect human nature and its Author from being
most unjustly libelled, and the contest will be termi-
nated. We shall meet as friends on the centre of the
plain ; we shall mutually acknowledge that both Scrip-
ture and experience unite to represent mankind as
imperfect creatures, as a wonderful compound of good
and evil ; that in the midst of much depravity great

* t Ps. vii. 8, 10. t Ps. xxxii. 11. t Ps xxxvii. 37. § Gen. vi. 9
j| Job, i. 1. IT I Kings, iii. 6.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 307

excellencies are discernible ; while many infirmities
adhere to the characters, which the Scriptures them-
selves pronounce to be perfect.

LETTER IV.

Doctrine of Original Depravity can be reconciled
neither with the Physical, nor Metaphysical Struc-
ture of Man. At variance with other Doctrines
of the Calvinistic Scheme.

Sir,

Having attempted to remove those obstacles, which
mistaken ideas of Scripture evidence, and of the
acknowledged facts observable in human life, have
opposed to your judging more favourably of human
nature, and which have induced you to adopt the most
inadmissible system mortals ever have invented, in
order to solve apparent difficulties, we may now, it is
hoped, without offence, approach the system itself;
and we shall venture to examine, without reserve,
whether it be consistent with reason or common
sense.

The hypothesis, which you urge upon our belief as
the proper foundation of religion, natural and reveal-
ed, is that man was originally possessed of every
moral and intellectual quality, before he had eaten the
27*

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forbidden fruit ; that, in consequence of this act, the
powers of his mind became darkened, his will per-
verted ; that he was rendered prone to every evil
thought and wicked deed ; and also, that he commu-
nicated this corrupt and depraved disposition to all
his offspring, without a single exception.

You must allow, that this total degeneracy of our
natures can only be ascribed to one or other of the
following causes ; it must have proceeded from an
absolute decree of heaven, or arbitrary exertion of
divine power, introducing some immediate and mira-
culous change in the very constitution of our first
parents, in consequence of their conduct ; or from
the agency of an evil spirit possessing inherent pow-
ers, or receiving permission from God, to contaminate
the parent stock, and the germs of existence, with
every evil principle ; or the change itself must have
taken place by the operation of some physical cause ;
that is, there must have been some natural relation
between the offence of our first parents, and the de-
generate effects ascribed to it. These are the only
alternatives that present themselves.

1. The first of these positions does not appear to
be maintained by any advocate for your system.
The whole blame is universally laid upon man ; and
the consequences of his disobedience are considered
as a just punishment for the abuse of his free will.
It is even attempted to vindicate the wisdom and jus-
tice of God, in thus ordaining that the eternal fate of

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 309

myriads should be made to depend upon the single
act of an individual, by the allegation, that if our first
parents had proved obedient to this test, their posteri-
ty would have enjoyed perfection and felicity equal
to the depravity and misery in which they are now
involved. Indeed, the contrary sentiment could not be
adopted without an accusation being brought against
their Maker, of voluntarily becoming the immediate
author of sin and misery ; without supposing that the
greatest miracle, ever wrought by Omnipotence, was
called forth for the worst of purposes ; that the Deity,
finding himself disappointed in his gracious designs to
render man perfect and happy, should, from a spirit
of revenge, inflict the greatest curse upon man, which
his all-comprehensive mind could devise.

2. Nor do they attribute to Satan any other power,
than that of seduction. They suppose that this evil
spirit, jealous of the felicity in reserve for the newly
created favourites of heaven, determined to counter-
act the beneficent designs of the Creator. But that
he was restrained from the use of any other means
than that of artifice ; that he perverted the judgment,
vitiated the desires, and gained a complete conquest
over the will of Adam and Eve, by his wiles ; know-
ing that the natural consequence of their disobedience
would be the ruin of themselves and their posterity.

3. Nothing remains, therefore, to explain this phe-
nomenon, but the influence of physical causes. They,
who admit the doctrine of hereditary depravity, are

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compelled to believe, that the sin of our first parents
so changed and contaminated their natures, that they
were rendered incapable of procreating such a race
of perfect and happy beings, as would have issued
from their loins, had they continued obedient to the
divine commands ; that their natural powers were so
instantaneously changed, as to communicate to their
innumerable progeny the guilt of their own sin, and a
propensity to commit every other.

Let us now examine whether this be possible.

Human depravity is ascribed by the hypothesis to
the sin of Adam and Eve in eating the forbidden
fruit. Whether we consider the account of the first
transgression given us by Moses, as allegorical, or as
a literal fact, criminality of conduct must equally con-
sist in disobedience to the divine command. The
disobedience was manifested by the commission of an
act in opposition to the divine prohibition, which in-
cluded in it a previous disposition, prompting to the
commission, and a voluntary compliance with this
disposition. Criminality cannot be attached to the
act itself, simply considered ; for, exclusive of the
prohibition, it would have been no greater crime to
eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, than
of any other tree in the garden. Nor could guilt be
imputed to the first impulse of desire ; for although
the height of perfection may consist in the elevation
of mind above temptation, yet to check an irregular
propensity, or rather a natural propensity, rendered

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 311

criminal alone by superiour authority, to check this
from reverence to that authority, is justly deemed a
virtue. Criminality must have commenced, there-
fore, with the yielding of the mind to the temptation,
that is, with the resolution taken to disobey. It is
consequently evident that Adam, in his best estate,
did not possess the high perfection which would have
placed him above an illicit propensity ; and it is no
less evident, that he had virtually fallen from a state
of purity and innocence of heart, before he partook of
the forbidden fruit. His mind was rendered depraved
by the determination of his will, before he actually
committed a deed, which is said to have plunged all
mankind in depravity. The act itself was simply an
indication, that he had not virtue enough to resist the
temptation. He must have been equally guilty in the
eyes of his Judge, had some miraculous interference
prevented the commission of it.

Here, by the way, we are again able to recognise
parents similar to their offspring. For it is the en-
couraging and yielding to irregular desires, which
constitute the criminality of our conduct. This is an
additional evidence, that they were created in all re-
spects like ourselves ; not excepting their being sub-
ject to temptations, and being subdued by them.

It appears, therefore, from the above considera-
tions, that the dispositions of our first parents were
perverted, before the actual commission of the deed,
to which the whole evil of the fall is invariably ascrib-

312 LETTERS ON

ed. Are we then to imagine, that the depraved dis-
position generated in their minds by the temptation, is
the primitive cause of all this hereditary mischief?
Could the indulgence of this one propensity produce,
by any physical laws of the constitution, such a singu-
lar change in their natures, that they should be ne-
cessitated by this change, to procreate a race of beings
directly opposite in character, to the original nature
infused by the immediate power of the Almighty .?
It is allowed that a prevailing cast of character may
be transmitted to the immediate offspring ; but the
hypothesis attributes infinitely greater force to one
particular desire, excited and gratified in a single in-
stance, in opposition to the general character, than to
the influence of the general character itself. Could
this singularity, which has such a miraculous appear-
ance, proceed from any physical law .? Are we to
conceive, that every other propensity, with which our
great ancestors were endowed, was at once annihi-
lated, or at once rendered inert by the momentary
indulgence of a single desire ? Are we to suppose
that a particular virus was contained in this illicit de-
sire, potent enough to spread itself over the human
race for the space of so many thousand years, pro-
ducing in the minds of men, not a single and similar
propensity to disobey an individual command, but a
congeries of perverse dispositions infinitely various,
and numbers of them directly opposite to each other
in their natures and qualities, and that no virtuous

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 313

propensity should be transmitted to check the conta-
gion ?

Again, it is admitted by our opponents that Adam
and Eve were blessed with sincere repentance, that
they were informed of a promised Messiah, that they
possessed a saving faith in him, and thus obtained the
pardon of their sin. Why was not this penitent tem-
per propagated in a similar manner, and diffused over
the human race, that the dangerous and deep wound
inflicted upon our natures might also have been heal-
ed ? Do not potent remedies discovered by mortals,
by healing the diseases contracted by the vicious
irregularities of parents, prevent their baneful effects
from being transmitted to their offspring .? Shall we
suppose a provisional power implanted in our natures
of receiving transmitted benefits in one case, which
is incidental, partial, and of inferiour importance, and
not in the other, which is infinite in extent and dura-
tion ? The bane is asserted to contaminate the whole
species, and to expose them to eternal misery, with-
out their deriving the least advantage from the anti-
dote of imputed repentance, while the great federal
offender himself is supposed to escape with the slight
punishment of transient sufferings and temporal death !
Can a position more extravagant and absurd be de-
vised by the utmost efforts of human ingenuity ?

There can be no answer to these queries, without
recurring to a proposition that has been disavowed ;
without ascribing the cause to a miraculous inter-

314 LETTERS ON

ference ; or to some original law in their make, de-
signedly planted there for the most pernicious pur-
poses ; by means of which this perfect pair, and in
them the whole human race, have been rendered prone
to every evil, by one single incident, while the physical
influence of other desires and propensities is not
permitted to counteract the mischief. This is resolv-
ing the consequences of the fall into the arbitrary ap-
pointment of Heaven, and directly charging God with
being the intentional author of universal depravity.

For the above reasons it cannot be admitted, that
this particular desire, generated in the mind of Adam
before the commission of the deed itself, should be
propagated to his posterity, and branch out into an
innumerable multitude of illicit desires, according to
the operation of any physical law in his constitution.

Would we ascribe the baneful influence of the
crime to the act itself, we should still be at a loss to
discover the most distant connexion between the sup-
posed cause and the dire effects.

It has already been observed that the act would
have been indifferent, had it not been a trespass upon
the divine prohibition. As such it was the consum-
mation of guilt. It totally obliterated every title to
the character of innocence. The unfortunate pair
could no longer rejoice in the simplicity and purity
of their minds, or enjoy that self-complacency and
confidence in the divine favour, which a triumph over
the temptation would have inspired. The dreadful

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 315

penalty was now incurred. The deed once perpe-
trated inevitably exposed them to the threatened
punishment. To the illicit desire excited before the
actual commission, succeeded terrour, Shame, re-
morse, self-reproach, and repentance; which, how-
ever it might mitigate the divine wrath, could not
restore their innocence, or replace them in the state
of conscious integrity from which they had fallen.
Such are the bitter fruits they had gathered from the
tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In a state perfectly similar may all the children of
Adam be placed, under a consciousness of guilt, and
in the fearful expectation of the righteous judgments
of God. To this they are rendered liable by the very
constitution of their natures, as being, like their first
parents, moral, conscious, responsible beings; and not
from any other inheritance than that of being of the
same species as their great, ancestors. Thus, by con-
templating all the moral evils arising immediately
from the commission of the act, it appears that they
must have been personal; such as were the necessary
result of their conduct, and relation to their Creator;
and such as can only be experienced by the offspring
that imitates their example. Nor could the act itself
indicate any thing that had a natural or physical ten-
dency to implant those seeds of universal depravity
ascribed to the grand transgression. Shall we attri-
bute the evil to the nature of the fruit,

31G LETTERS ON

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe ?

Will this solve the difficulty ? Could the tree of
knowledge of good and evil secrete from its juices,
and deposit in the fruit, nothing but a malignant virus,
without any mixture of the good ? Could its intoxi-
cating qualities diffuse the most opposite frenzies over
an innumerable progeny, and transmit them down to
the latest posterity? Is it owing to the subtile proper-
ties of this fruit, that even to the present hour the
most opposite vices shall be generated; that one child
of Adam shall be disposed to the sin of avarice, an-
other to that of extravagance and dissipation ; that
this person is timid to pusillanimity, and his neighbour
rash and impetuous ; that one character is treacher-
ous, another overbearing and tyrannical ? Did this
also infuse propensities to ebriety, lewdness, fraud,
and deceit; to envy, groundless suspicions, deliberate
malevolence, cruelty, or vindictive anger ? In short,
did it, in reality, operate in the manner fabulously re-
corded of Pandora's box, and shed over human na-
ture a medley of evils various and opposite, containing
within itself at the same instant the germs of all those
wicked and contrary propensities, which have dis-
graced and tormented our natures ?

But whichever of the modes specified you may
adopt, as the physical cause of human depravity, are
we to extend the moral effects of the fall beyond the
human race ? Did it exert its morbid influence over

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 31?

all animated beings ? We perceive something in the
brute creation strongly resembling those propensities,
which constitute, in certain circumstances, the vices
and imperfections of men. Did the ruins of the fall
extend to these also ? Did it curse the hare, and
many other animals, with a timidity which keeps them
perpetually upon the watch; give ferocity to the tiger;
subtlety to the fox ; render the wolf treacherous and
cruel ; teach the insidious spider to weave its wreb for
the incautious fly ; impart to the scorpion its deadly
sting? Did it impart to one animal its unconquerable
sloth ; or infuse into another its hereditary disposition
to gluttony ? Did it foment strifes and quarrels
among animals of the same species ; teach mastiffs
to worry each other ; inspire the gamecock with
persevering hatred against its antagonist, and arm it
with spurs for the contest ; impart to various animals
a degree of mutual enmity, as often as they become
rivals or impediments to each other in the gratifica-
tion of their appetites ? Did it create birds of prey
also, and diffuse universal hostility over the finny
tribe ?

If your answer be in the affirmative ; then must
you acknowledge, that a petulant power has been ex-
erted by the Almighty to blast innocent natures, in
revenge for crimes in which they had no share, for
here hereditary propensity could not take place. If
your answer be in the negative ; whence came these
apparent evils in the brute creation ? If they were

318 LETTERS ON

originally implanted by the finger of God, is not such
a constitution of things as contrary to our primary
notions of the divine character, as the permission of
moral evil in the moral world ? Since characters and
dispositions, so contrary to our ideas of rectitude and
innocence, are permitted in the lower ranks of life
by an absolute law of their natures, why may not
that peculiarly susceptible and versatile creature, man,
whose connexions with the world and its objects are
infinitely more ample and diversified, become inci-
dentally subject to them all, without the imputation of
that hereditary depravity, which you suspect to be a
deviation from the primary plan ? Why may we not
allow his various propensities to be with him, as with
the lower creation, the satellites of self-love, the
moral depravity of which consists in the perversion of
desires innocent in themselves, in the criminal choice
of objects, or undue degrees of indulgence, that is,
in their opposition to the dictates of reason, or of an
express command, or to those laws of benevolence,
which are so peculiarly obligatory upon him, as a ra-
tional and social being ?

If we consider the subject metaphysically, we shall
be presented with objections not less formidable.

You have manifested, it is true, a degree of con-
tempt for metaphysics, not uncommon to those who
are totally unacquainted with the science ; forgetting
that some subjects cannot be satisfactorily treated in
any other manner. But let it be remarked, that in

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 319

cases where the metaphysician is lost in his abstrac-
tions, and returns from his arduous pursuits dissatis-
fied with the result, yet he has in general acquired an
accuracy and precision in his ideas, with which they
are little acquainted, who have never applied them-
selves to the study. However, under this head, we
will be as concise as possible.

We may first observe, that the doctrine is not very
consistent with the ideas you entertain of mind.

It is singular that the doctrine of hereditary depra-
vity should alone be entertained by those, who are
strenuous advocates for the spirituality of mind.
Should the Materialist adopt the system, he might
claim some right to borrow an argument from the
analogy subsisting between one material substance
and another. He might be permitted to affix a more
literal signification to the usual terms corruption of
human nature, the contagion of sin, &tc. and derive
illustrations from the fermentative quality and expan-
sive powers of leaven, which will in small quantities
diffuse its influence over a large mass ; or from the
dairy, when he observes how small a portion of an
acrid juice is able, instantaneously, to change a large
quantity of the blandest milk into a hard, coagulated
substance. His only task will be to prove, that the
cases are perfectly parallel; and that dispositions and
actions are inevitably contagious to mind, independent
of the will. But an advocate for the spirituality of
the soul, attentive to the high attributes with which
28*

320 LETTERS ON

he clothes this spiritual nature, should be particularly
cautious before he asserts that a momentary desire, of
a peculiar nature, excited by a particular temptation,
can be infectious to kindred minds, while they were
in an unconscious state ; and that this disposition,
being infinitely divisible as matter, has been diffused
over infinitudes of minds for successive generations.*
Further, the abettors of this system ought to form
precise ideas of the nature of sin, and of mental de-
pravity, before they impute either to the unconscious
principle. The only malady of mind consists in im-
paired or disordered intellects, depraved desires, and
perverse will. The former is by universal consent
pronounced to be a misfortune, not a crime, because
the mind is purely and involuntarily passive ; and is
not this precisely the case with the primitive temper
and disposition with which we are generated? Allow-
ing the definition of sin to be " any want of conform-
ity unto, or transgression of the law of God," we
ought to be perfectly clear in the position, that this
transgression, or want of conformity, can be committed
by the mind, before it enjoys any knowledge of moral
obligation. If we should deem it absurd to impute
errours in judgment to mankind, before they are
capable of reasoning, how can we suppose their wills
to be depraved before they had a will, or charge them

[* Two or three paragraphs are here omitted, as containing an
argument not very obvious, and adding little strength to the author?
general train of reasoning. — Ed-]

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 321

with being guilty of Adam's sin, either in deed or by
acquiescence, before they had power to act, or to
testify consent ?

Will you say they sinned by imputation 9 This is
impossible, for sin is a personal act ; and were it
possible, the imputation itself would be a greater in-
justice in the imputer, a greater violation of rectitude,
than could be committed by the much injured inno-
cent, even after he had acquired the power of actual
transgression. But your hypothesis states, that the
heart itself is depraved, rotten to the core ! Can this
statement be qualified by the idea of imputation 9

The utmost, that can possibly be ascribed to the
human mind, is, that it is so formed as in certain cir-
cumstances it will indicate itself prone to the com-
mission of evil. But such a conformation in itself
has no more culpability, than the calamity of impair-
ed intellects. Let the natural propensity be ever so
strong, the subject must be as innocent of guilt, as
the embryo of a tiger is void of cruelty, before it has
acquired the instinctive ferocity of the dam. Virus
itself is innoxious in an inert state. Nor could the
inert virus of sin, supposing it to exist, be charged
with demerit. This title must be suspended until it
shall burst forth into actual transgression.

But the same mind is so formed, that in certain
circumstances it shows itself prone to good also ; and
why may not this fact be admitted with equal pro-
priety, as an evidence of the universal excellence of

322 LETTERS ON

our natures ? Why may we not expatiate upon all the
good observable in man, and pronounce him perfect,
in consequence of his approved moral qualities, as
legitimately as you stigmatize him with the character
of universal depravity, from his bad ones ? Let this
statement convince you, Sir, that the singular con-
formation of our natures cannot be, of itself, an indica-
tion of either virtue or vice, that it is equally void of
merit or demerit, claims no reward, and deserves no
punishment.

Does not the above examination fully prove that
the doctrine of hereditary mental depravity, consider-
ed either physically or metaphysically, is an absolute
impossibility ?

We shall now briefly show, that it is equally incon-
sistent with some other theological tenets, which are
also deemed sacred by its supporters. For instance ;

If hereditary corruption be admitted, it will totally
destroy all the subsequent temptations of Satan. If
man be so depraved that he can neither think a good
thought, nor perform a good action ; if his very best
deeds are only splendid sins, there is no place left for
the seductions of the evil one. His whole business
must have been completed by the success of his first
enterprise. He and his agents would be idling away
their time, in employing arts of seduction upon those,
who are already prone to every kind of iniquity ; or
endeavouring to captivate those, who are already in
their chains.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 323

The doctrine of original depravity opposes with no
less force, that of the true and proper incarnation of
the Son of God. If it be true, that our natures are
universally corrupt, when the Godhead became man
in the person of Jesus Christ, he must have taken our
corrupt natures upon him ; that is, he must also in-
evitably have partaken of this original hereditary de-
pravity. If he remained untainted with original sin,
it could not be our nature, which he took upon him-
self. Admitting that the union of the Divinity with
humanity may have preserved the latter from actual
transgression, may have checked and subdued every
evil propensity, or may have prevented any from
rising, yet the propensity must have been radically
inherent in the person of Jesus Christ, as much as in
ourselves. The divine nature must inevitably have
taken the human, as it actually exists. Christ Jesus,
therefore, as Man, however perfect in character and
in conduct, yet being a child of Adam, he was,
equally with those he came to save, " liable to the
wrath of God, and the pains of hell for ever !" The
pen trembles as it traces these consequences ; but
they inevitably flow from your extravagant hypothesis !
The idea might be enlarged upon, were not the sub-
ject too revolting.

The position, that our Saviour was born out of the
course of ordinary generation, does not solve the dif-
ficulty, unless it can be proved that Adam's depravity
ran in the male line alone, notwithstanding that Eve

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was first in the transgression. Mary, the mother of
Jesus, being born of parents naturally depraved, must
have partaken of their depravity, and this must have
been communicated to all her descendants, whether
according to the course of ordinary generation or not.
It is maintained by our opponents universally, that our
Saviour was of the seed of David, alone in conse-
quence of his having been born of Mary ; but as you
apply the declaration of David, that " he was born in
sin, and in iniquity did his mother conceive him," to
the pollution derived from Adam, Mary must also
have partaken of, and communicated its dreadful
effects to her son.

Thus it appears, without a possibility of evading
the force of the argument, that if the doctrine of
hereditary depravity be true, and if the Son of God
be also the Son of Man, being descended from Adam,
in the female line, he " sinned in him, and fell with
him in his first transgression."

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 325

LETTER V.

The Notion, thai Men are punished for Sin inherited
from Mam, is extravagant, irrational, and un-
scr'jitural. Shown to be absurd, and the Argu-
ments in its Favour examined and confuted. It is
in Opposition to the Attributes of God.

Sir,
The other branch of your doctrine relates to the
punishments, to which the hereditary sinner is ex-
posed. These, as represented in creeds and con-
fessions, consist in miseries, which it is not in the
power of imagination to exceed. They state that
" the offspring of Adam have, by his fall, lost com-
munion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and
so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death
itself, and to the pains of hell for ever." The only
mitigation of this dreadful sentence is, " God having
out of his mere good pleasure from all eternity elect-
ed some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant
of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and
misery, and bring them into an estate of salvation
through a Redeemer."

The objections against the tenet of hereditary sin
were simply, that it is unscriptural, irrational, and,
physically and metaphysically considered, impossible ;
as well as inconsistent with other doctrines held to be
of equal importance. The charges against this part

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of the system are of a more serious nature. It con-
tains sentiments which impeach the divine character,
and are totally the reverse of the ideas it is our duty
to cherish of the Great Universal Parent.

This sentence of condemnation consists of three
parts, being made " liable to all the miseries of this
life; — to death itself ; — and to the pains of hell for
ever."

To ascribe all the miseries of this life to the fall of
Adam is merely hypothetical. It far exceeds the
Scripture account, nor is it warranted by facts.
Many evils manifestly arise from the original consti-
tution of animated natures. Many evils are suffered
by the brute creation, whose natures could not have
partaken of any hereditary change from the fall of
Adam. The sensitive powers which are the sources
of pleasure, may, in some circumstances, become the
occasions of pain ; and that susceptibility of impress-
ions from surrounding causes, which is productive of
health and vigour, may occasionally render our na-
tures subject to diseases, as it finally induces the tor-
por of death. Many evils are superadded to the
human species from the very superiority of our make ;
from the extreme delicacy of our feelings ; from the
nature and extent of our connexions with every thing
around us ; from the infinite variety of our pursuits,
and the number of our enjoyments. Animals suffer
little more than bodily pain, for the instant. The
majority of them have, in appearance, very imperfect

TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

327

recollection of the past, and no dread of the future.
Their pursuits commence and cease with animal
gratifications. The objects which attract our atten-
tion are not to be calculated, and every object may
prove a source of disappointment. Our sorrows arise
from the recollection of past, comforts ; they are the
funeral eulogy of departed joys. Framed and situ-
ated as we are, various discomfitures must present
themselves, from the very constitution of things, with-
out their being evils entailed upon us by the crime of
our progenitors. It will appear obvious to every one,
who attentively studies, free from the bias of system,
the nature of man, his powers, his connexions, his pas-
sions and affections, that we are as originally intend-
ed ; and that the shock of a single transgression could
no more introduce such various and wonderful com-
binations, than the shock of an earthquake could
newly organize the whole creation.

It is the immutable law of animal natures, that all
which are born into this world, shall suffer the disso-
lution of their frames. From this law the human
species, superiour as it may be in its faculties, is not
exempt. Yet the human species are expectants of a
higher state, where their natures shall be rendered
capable of enjoying permanent existence, and more
exalted happiness, than its present frailties will permit.
Were they destitute of this expectation, as they can-
not claim an exclusive right to immortality, there
could be no injustice in their being involved in the
29

32S LETTERS ON

common ruin ; with it, they are rendered the peculiar
monuments of divine benignity, notwithstanding this
temporary dishonour. Mortality being our destined
lot, where is the injury in rendering our grand pro-
genitor the parent of this mortal race ; or the impro-
priety of constituting his disobedience to the divine
command the medium of its introduction ; since it
inculcates this important lesson, that disobedience
disqualifies for the enjoyment of permanent happi-
ness, and therefore would render permanent exist-
ence a curse ? Sin entered into the world through
the first man, as he was the first sinner ; but as there
is not the most distant reason to expect, that his off-
spring would have been created with more perfect
dispositions, and stronger powers than he enjoyed,
each, like him, would doubtless have yielded to his
own temptation ; and the divine law being in force,
that the wages of sin shall be death, these wages
would have been universally the awards of our own
personal transgressions. This statement must not
only appear consonant with every attribute of Deity,
but to every one, who believes in primitive and ra-
tional Christianity, indicative of the divine benignity.
He will, in that system, discover, that indemnification
is promised to the virtuous part of our race, through
the instrumentality of one, who is termed the second
Adam, and whose perfection of character entitles him
to the high honour of being the Saviour of mankind ;
for we are there taught, that " as in Adam all died,
so in Christ shall all be made alive."

TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

329

According to this constitution of things, should it
not perfectly quadrate with prior ideas or expecta-
tions, no injustice in the conduct of Deity towards his
creatures can be discovered, or suspected. Ample
provision is made for the reparation of temporary in-
juries ; and though we may not completely trace the
whole plan of Providence, we can trace marks of
wisdom and beneficence through the mists of obscu-
rity which still remain. But to believe that the human
race is rendered liable to the permanent inextinguish-
able wrath of God, and to the pains of hell forever,
on account of the transgression of their forefather, or
in consequence of any taint, that they have been ne-
cessitated to receive from him, is an extravagance
that has never been equalled !

It has been asserted, and, I think, indisputably
proved, that the doctrine of hereditary depravity has
no countenance from Scripture, and that every text
urged in support of that idea demands a different sig-
nification. We must now remark, that the eternal
punishment of hereditary sin is likewise a phantom of
the brain, a mere dream, and no revelation.

It must be remarked, that the doctrine of our being
liable to eternal misery on account of original sin, has
not so much as dubious phraseology, or the sound of
a single text to support it. Most of the errours of
systematic divines, whether of the Romish or Calvin-
istic church, proceed from their not possessing any
clue to direct them through the diversities and appa-

•-530 LETTERS ON

rent contrarieties of scripture language. The par-
ticular style of each author, the nature of the subject,
the state and circumstances of the persons addressed,
&c. have been the occasion of varied phraseology,
and this has been made to countenance every religious
hypothesis, which the caprice of man has imagined,
from the extravagances of Transubstantiation on the
one hand, to those of Antinomianism on the other.
In fact, almost every absurdity, which has disgraced
theology, has arisen from literal interpretations being
given to passages in holy writ, where the first prin-
ciples of reason, and the essential doctrines of Chris-
tianity demand a figurative, metaphorical sense. But
on the present question, the opposite conduct has been
pursued. The doctrine appears so enchanting, that
language has been strained and distorted, in order to
give it countenance. The only sentence denounced
against disobedience, recorded in scripture history,
is, " in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die ;" the only apprehension expressed by
Eve, when tempted by the serpent, was, " if she ate
of the tree, or touched it, she should surely die."
After the deed was committed, the Lord God, allot-
ting the punishment to each offender, passed the fol-
lowing verdict alone ; he said unto the woman, " I
will greatly multiply thy sorrow, and thy conception ;
in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy de-
sire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee." And unto Adam he said, "Because thou hast

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331

hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou
shalt not eat of it ; cursed is the ground for thy sake ;
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life ;
thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ;
and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat
of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto
the ground ; for out of it ivast thou taken ; for dust
thou art, and to dust shalt thou return."

What a predilection for the diffusion of misery
must that mind have possessed ; what barbarous
ideas, worse than gothic, which dared first to inter-
pret threats like these into our being made liable to
the pains of hell forever, on account of the first trans-
gression ! What reason can be given for this unusual
deviation from the literal sense of terms ? By what
rule of interpretation can it be proved, that the death
denounced in this sentence should signify eternal ex-
istence, and an eternal existence in misery ? The
errour and absurdity of this interpretation are happily
demonstrated by an authority you will not dispute.
St Paul, referring to this transgression of our first
parents, says, " For as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive." The contrast, ac-
cording to just rules of interpretation, must either
relate to the privation of life by one event, and the
restoration of life by the other ; or it must run thus,
" for as in Adam all were made eternally miserable,
so in Christ shall all be made eternally happy." A
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LETTERS ON

contrast which contradicts itself ; for those, who are
preordained to be eternally wretched, can never be
eternally happy.

Neither is there a single passage in any other part
of sacred writ, in which eternal misery is said to be
the punishment allotted to the offspring of Adam, on
account of Adam's transgression, or that can encou-
rage the most eccentric imagination to draw the in-
ference.

We shall, therefore, with a freedom similar to that
indulged respecting the former article, examine
whether the doctrine of the eternal misery of Adam's
offspring, on account of his transgression, be consistent
with those attributes, which we all profess to ascribe
to the Deity, whom we unite to pronounce infinitely
powerful, wise, just, and good.

But this freedom shall not prevent our proceeding
with due caution, in the examination of a question
upon which our characters may be said, in some
measure, to depend ; concerning which, if the doc-
trine he true, the boldness of the attack must appear
rash and reprehensible; if false, every one will deem
the doctrine itself to be impious. Let it therefore
be previously noticed, that every argument demands
a perfect agreement of the disputants concerning the
signification of the terms used, and a mutual convic-
tion of their aptitude to the subject. You will doubt-
less acquiesce in the definition, that Power is an
energy capable of producing certain effects; and the

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 333

power of an intelligent being is the ability of operat-
ing some designed effect. By Wisdom is understood
the perception and application of means adapted to
certain ends. It implies a knowledge of the relation
in which things stand to each other, and the direction
of this knowledge to some suitable purpose. By Jus-
tice is meant the disposition to render to others what
is their due. It consists in not inflicting punish-
ment beyond their deserts; and in not depriving them
of the good to which they have an undoubted claim.
By Goodness, the disposition which consults and pro-
motes the welfare of others to the utmost extent of
power.

It is also to be presumed, that these terms have
exactly the same import when applied to the charac-
ter of Deity, as in their application to the characters
of men ; that the difference is in degree only, not in
nature. Without this concession there can be no ar-
gumentation concerning the attributes of Deity. We
shall neither understand each other nor ourselves ;
but shall rush into a chaos of incertitude, where
nothing can be maintained or denied, proved or con-
futed.

These observations will, it is hoped, strike you,
Sir, with all the force of self evident propositions ; but
they have not been uniformly admitted by advocates
for the religious sentiments you have espoused.
Some have imagined, that there is one code of moral
conduct for God, and another for man ; that what-

334 LETTERS ON

ever the Divine Being ordains or effects, must be
right and good, merely because he is the agent ; that
his sovereignty renders him superiour to every other
rule, but that of his own good pleasure. Sentiments
these, which subjugate every principle to the right of
the strongest, and would render Satan himself wise,
just, and good, could he but usurp the throne of the
Almighty.

Let us now apply these principles to the history of
original sin, and inquire how they will accord. The
doctrine stands thus.

It was the primary design of the Almighty, all wise,
infinitely just, and good God, to create a race of
beings in order to confer upon them perfection of
character, and render them eternally happy. Unfor-
tunately Satan, an evil spirit of extraordinary powers,
and astonishing subtilty — but yet a creature of God,
and as such not above the control of his Maker —
Satan, by a single stratagem, subverted the whole
plan. It was not by procuring the annihilation of this
new world, with its inhabitants, that he destroyed
those complacential prospects of communing bliss en-
joyed by the divine mind, but he involved an infinite
majority of its rational inhabitants in endless misery.
The infernal scheme was accomplished by seducing
our first parents to transgress the divine command,
while their whole progeny was in their loins ; and the
seduction introduced at once such a total depravity
into human nature, as to render the whole progeny of

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 335

Adam deserving of eternal damnation, even before
they committed any actual transgression. This sin
of Adam incensed the Deity against the whole human
race, and now he determines to make the beings, who
were originally designed to be partakers of his muni-
ficence, the dreadful monuments of his wrath. The
intended objects of his lovingkindness are now the
objects of his vindictive justice for crimes, of which
they were totally ignorant. The infinite mercy of
Deity, however, induced him to make a few excep-
tions, and to elect some from this immense mass of
misery to everlasting life, out of his mere good pleas-
ure, without any superiour degree of innocence on
their parts, or the possession of a single good quality
to recommend them to this peculiar mark of divine
favour.

Surely, to every person free from prejudice, will
the above statement, which defies the charge of ex-
aggeration, appear as a confutation of the doctrine.
But such is the force of early education, or of predi-
lection for a particular system, and so great is the
awe with which some minds are struck, when dis-
posed, or, as they term it, tempted to doubt of tenets,
they have been taught to regard as sacred, that the
greatest absurdities lie concealed from the eye when
they put on a religious garb ; and the same under-
standings, which despise common extravagances, will
bend the knee to those contained in their theological
creeds.

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Is it not self evident, that if God foresaw from all
eternity the seduction of Adam, and if he ordained
from all eternity to save the elect out of the general
wreck, either, that it was not the primary intention of
the Supreme Being to render Adam and his posterity
happy, or that he failed in the attempt ? We cannot
make the former supposition, without denying to the
Deity the only motive that was worthy of him. Nay,
we must suppose that he decreed to form, that is, to
compel into existence, beings innumerable, whose
eternal misery he distinctly foresaw. Can the imagi-
nation devise a determination of cruelty equal to this ?
Is it possible for such a doctrine to be true, and the
Deity to possess the character ascribed to him by the
Apostle John, when he says, " God is love ;" a being
essentially benignant ? Could a good being form
creatures for such an unworthy purpose, when the
very definition of benignity is a disposition to diffuse
all possible happiness ?

The partial exertion of sovereignty in the predesti-
nation of a few to eternal life, which is eagerly urged
as a proof of the infinite mercy of God, is in fact an
evidence to the contrary. The salvation of this se-
lected few must now be considered as a full indica-
tion of the Divine Power to save those destined to
perdition, had he chosen it ; and therefore it necessa-
rily limits the divine benignity. Had the whole hu-
man race been involved in one equal ruin, we might
have lamented that Satan should thus triumph over

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 337

the benevolent designs of our Maker ; and we might,
even in misery, have venerated the disposition, which
prompted to make us happy. But to display in this
small specimen his power, while the disposition con-
tinues averse from the promotion of the grand primi-
tive design, is an astonishing limitation of goodness ;
and what increases the astonishment is, its being pro-
duced by the machinations of an infernal spirit.

Most advocates for the distinguishing tenets of Cal-
vinism seem to be much more deeply impressed with
the idea of Power, than with any other of the divine
attributes ; and to be much more cautious not to
commit an offence, by placing limits to the exertions
of this power, than to the manifestations of wisdom
and goodness. The abettors of such sentiments
should be peculiarly careful not to support a doctrine,
which virtually destroys the sovereignty of God, and
transfers that attribute to his grand antagonist. This
corruption of the whole human race, and peopling the
dominions of sin and misery with such multitudes of
subjects, loudly proclaims the triumph, and extends
the sovereignty of Satan over the wide region of the
damned, while that of the great Creator is contracted
to the small province of the elect. He is now de-
prived of every power, beyond this jurisdiction, but
that of executing the purposes of Satan, by inflicting
eternal punishments, in perfect conformity to Satan's
malignant desires !

338 LETTERS ON

Can we venerate the infinite Wisdom of God, and
believe that his plans were disconcerted by the wiles
of an apostate spirit ? Can we imagine that he should
have miscalculated the powers of his new favourite
man, on the one hand, and the artifices of the Devil
on the other ; and thus have inadvertently exposed
the representative of the human race to a combat, to
which he was created so unequal ? According to this
scheme, the very Prescience of God is an impeach-
ment of his wisdom, siuce he must thus have concert-
ed a plan which he knew would prove abortive.

If we attend to the plan itself, it will, in every re-
spect, appear unworthy of Deity. In other cases,
where we trace the divine footsteps, we discover
marks of wisdom ; we judge them to be of God from
the stamp of excellency impressed upon them ; but
who can possibly discern the wisdom of a constitu-
tion, which not only failed in the primitive design, but
inevitably exposed the vast majority of mankind to
endless wo ? What marks of design worthy of God
do we trace, in resting the character and felicity of
numberless beings on the single act of a frail indi-
vidual ; in rendering them nominally good or bad,
really happy or wretched, by imputation and proxy ?
If it be an essential character of wisdom to discern
and adapt means to ends, that some valuable purpose
may be obtained, it surely cannot be found in a doc-
trine, that represents the means to be inadequate, and

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 339

the issue the reverse of what was intended, that is,
the reverse of every thing wise and good.

If it be one property of Justice not to inflict punish-
ment beyond desert, can the utmost stretch of imagi-
nation conceive of an act of injustice equal to the
conduct imputed to the Supreme, which has exposed
" numbers, beyond enumeration," to eternal misery
for a single act of their primogenitor, while they were
sleeping in unconsciousness .? Can any act be more
unjust, than the judicial punishment of the innocent
for imputed crimes, than to rank those who have
never transgressed, in the class of the vilest offenders,
for a conduct over which they could have no influ-
ence ; and to exclude them from the pardon you al-
low to have been granted to the real offender ? Had
iEsop lived in the christian era, and been informed,
that such a tenet was maintained by some professors
of Christianity, we should have suspected that the
fable of the wolf and the lamb, which every ingenuous
schoolboy reads with indignation, had been invented
to satirize and confute so extravagant an idea.

You say, that this multitude, doomed to eternal
perdition, fall a sacrifice to the vindictive justice of
God, whose laws have been violated by the grand
representative of the human race. But can Deity be
unjust and cruel to others, that he mny be just to him-
self? The satisfaction of the attribute justice, is, in
reality, a simple abstract idea. Justice suffers no
misery, if it be not satisfied ; and it cannot demand
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340 LETTERS ON

the misery of millions, who never intentionally offend-
ed it. Besides, since the claims of vindictive justice
have been waived in the salvation of the elect, what
can have rendered them so inexorable respecting the
reprobated? or, why should its claims be paramount
to those of every other attribute ? Are they more
sacred than those of Benignity and Compassion ?
Must this so peremptorily demand millions of victims,
and are the others to be easily satisfied with a few
scattered monuments of mercy ?

But the principal defence of your fundamental doc-
trine is founded upon a supposed covenant, which it
is said God entered into with Adam ; according to
which it was stipulated, that he and his posterity
should enjoy eternal life, in consequence of his obe-
dience. It is therefore pleaded, that as Adam sub-
mitted to the terms, the Deity is fully justified in
executing the sentence denounced against disobedi-
ence.

The first answer to this assertion is, that it is a mere
assertion, and no revelation. Among the numerous
covenants really mentioned in the Old or New
Testament, it is nowhere to be found. Those upon
record are obviously just, most of them replete with
benignity and love. They are all worthy of a God,
worthy of being adored. Not one of them has the
most distant reference to the fall of Adam ; and we
shall search in vain for a stipulation so formed, that a
breach of its conditions on the part of man should
involve myriads of innocent beings in endless misery.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 341

The idea of a covenant is solely entertained as a
subterfuge, under which distressed argument may
shelter itself; but it is totally inadequate to the pur-
pose. A moment's reflection will convince you, that
it was unworthy of the Deity, and ill adapted to the
state of man. If you suppose, that supreme Intelli-
gence did not foresee the issue of this compact, which
is the most favourable supposition wTe can make, you
must admit, that it was a desperate venture to place
the eternal interests of the whole human race upon
such a hazard. We are struck with honour when
we read, that the ancient Germans used frequently to
stake the liberty of their wives and children upon the
throw of a die, and yet we must imagine that the Su-
preme Parent staked the felicity of his intellectual
offspring upon an event, that was equally precarious.
If you acknowledge that he foreknew the event, the
imputation is infinitely stronger. In that case, this
extolled covenant, which is to settle every difficulty,
by fully vindicating the divine justice, bears all the
marks of an illicit contract. Adam, confiding in the
powers newly received from his Maker, and deeming
them fully adequate to every trial to which the benig-
nant Author of his existence would expose him, must
have accepted the terms in the simplicity and in-
genuousness of his heart. But his Creator foreknew
the dreadful consequences ; and what shall we term
this, if it be not deceitfully taking in the unwary ? If
it be not holding out a ticket to the grasp, which,

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upon the face of it, promised riches immense, while
the proposer knew it would be drawn a dreadful
blank ? Or what shall we think of that commisera-
tion, which should propose a compact, Omniscience
foresaw would be so fatal in its result ; which should
expose the dearest interests of the universe to the
vibrations of Adam's free will,' with a previous know-
ledge that it would finally point at destruction ?

You may, perhaps, object that such language is
bold even to rashness ; you will plead, that notwith-
standing we agree in our ideas of justice and good-
ness in the abstract, we may frequently err in our
application of these terms to particular instances; and
because we are prone to make egregious mistakes in
dispositions and conduct, often deeming that to be just
and good, or to be unjust or cruel, which in fact is the
very reverse. This objection is admitted to have
some force, but when duly considered it will be dis-
covered to add strength to our argument, and justify
every expression that has been uttered.

You cannot maintain, that because we sometimes
err in our ideas of moral conduct, we must always
err ; for this mode of reasoning, would render every
thing uncertain, and bring us back to a state of con-
fusion and ignorance. Were this to be established as
an universal axiom without any exception, it would
destroy itself. The same evidence, which, in certain
instances, detects that we had misapplied those terms,
manifests that we do not misapply them always ; otli-

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 343

ervvise we should never be able to correct our opinion
effectually, nor would the mind find itself authorized
to settle in the full conviction of a truth. Let us then
attend to the manner in which our former errours
have been corrected, and we shall discover a rule of
conduct sufficient to direct us in every similar in-
stance. In all cases, we correct our judgment, by
rendering ourselves more perfect masters of the sub-
ject under consideration ; that is, by obtaining minute
and accurate information concerning every circum-
stance that can elucidate it ; and by giving to each
circumstance, without reserve, its genuine character
and due degree of importance. Every person of
sound intellect is able to judge of right and wrong
in conduct, when each material article, relative to
the act, is fairly placed before him, provided his
mind be totally free from the bias of prejudice. We
thus, in some cases, acquire a power of discrimina-
tion which we deem infallible. It is thus we are able
to exculpate or convict in courts of judicature ; and
venture to decide concerning guilt and innocence,
where the life and character of the arraigned, that is,
all that is valuable to him, is at stake; and where the
character and mental peace of the juror himself, de-
pend upon the truth of his verdict. It is by attending
to every leading circumstance of a fact, we know that
to take what has been the property of another, is not
always theft ; to destroy life is not always to commit
murder ; that every act of severity is not always an
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injustice ; and every indulgence granted may not al-
ways be a real kindness.

Thus the conduct of Deity towards his rational
creatures may, in many instances, appear extremely
severe, perhaps inconsistent with justice. But as we
are not fully acquainted with the deserts of the indi-
vidual, on the one hand, nor with the whole plan of
Providence concerning him on the other, we should
be rash and precipitate in the extreme, did we form
our judgment according to these appearances. Did
we know the whole, the equity and benignity of a
being, essentially just and good, must necessarily be
rendered conspicuous ; and the coincidence between
character and conduct would be fully demonstrated.
As long as the possibility of retribution remains, the
severest conduct may finally indicate itself to be the
truest benignity directed by wisdom ; and the full in-
demnification, which Omnipotence is able to bestow,
may render those trials a subject of joy and gratitude,
which, in the painful process, excited the contrary
emotions. When, therefore, we have arrived at the
ultimatum concerning a plan, or an action ; when we
are able to estimate the degree of influence belonging
to every circumstance surrounding it, we are then
able to decide concerning its nature and character.
We may then pronounce a verdict without hesita-
tion ; no further appeal can be made, nor can any
circumstances present themselves to produce a change
of opinion.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 346

Now this is precisely the case with the subject in
debate. Your doctrine professes to give a history of
the whole plan of Providence respecting the human
race ; and to the conduct of Providence towards this
race are our ideas necessarily confined. Every es-
sential part is stated ; the primitive designs of creation ;
the seduction of Satan ; the guilt of Adam ; the in-
culpation of his unconscious progeny; the punishment
denounced ; the motives for its extreme severity — to
avenge vindictive justice ; the exceptions which anni-
hilate its necessity — the salvation of a chosen few in
the same predicament, without the shadow of a mo-
tive. A clearer case has never been stated before a
court of judicature ; and we may add, never could
the decision of not guilty be pronounced with a
firmer tone, than we are able to pronounce the inno-
cence of Adam's progeny. Never could a court be
more assured that particular conduct is unjust, cruel,
unworthy of its agent, than we may rest assured, that
a. just and merciful Being cannot sentence the uncon-
scious children of Adam to eternal misery, on account
of this single act of disobedience.

From inattention to the essential difference, which
particular circumstances necessarily make in the na-
ture and character of any action, it proceeds, that you,
and the supporters of your system, are so prone to
adduce as powerful arguments, every instance of di-
vine conduct, which bears but the slightest analogy to
the subject in question; although this mode of reason-

346 LETTERS ON

ing leads to consequences, which yourselves must
reject. It was this which induced you to conclude,
that because the Supreme Being has admitted some
evil into the system of things, he is free to multiply
and diffuse it in the most arbitrary manner, and to
the greatest extent; which, if true, would, as has been
already hinted, approximate the most opposite charac-
ters, and render the state of mankind as lamentable
under the government of the best of beings, as under
the tyranny of the worst.

The declaration made to the Jewish people by the
Almighty, that " he visiteth the iniquity of the father
upon the children to the third and fourth generation
of them that hate him," furnishes us with another
example of the same inconclusive mode of reasoning.
An argument has been drawn from it, that as it is
consistent with the justice of God to visit the iniquity
of parents upon their offspring in one instance, why
not in all ? The answer upon the principles stated
above is obvious. When circumstances, which have
an apparent similarity, indicate themselves, upon close
examination, to be essentially different, no argument
from so slight and imperfect an analogy can be ad-
mitted. This threat may prove itself to be within
the sphere not only of justice, but of benignity. The
good enjoyed may yet surpass the evils suffered; and
undoubtedly will surpass the deserts of the offending
sufferer. The threat was intended to prevent the
offence ; while it shuts no door to the repentance.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 347

which severity is calculated and designed to promote ;
and which will be succeeded by the return of the di-
vine favour and protection. What relation has such
an admonition with that final state of things, where
punishment infinitely exceeds personal demerit, re-
pentance can be of no avail, and " hope never comes
that comes to all ?" We must also observe, that, ac-
cording to the manifest constitution of human affairs,
a regular series of cause and effect is established in
every station and relation in life ; and the nature and
complexion of the one will be according to the ten-
dency of the other. Parents are not only the source
of the existence, but of the lot of their offspring.
Both the prosperity and distress of children, in cases
innumerable, depend upon the success or adversity,
the prudence or imprudence, the virtuous or vicious
conduct of the authors of their being. It was there-
fore a benignant admonition, which warned the Israel-
ites, that the effects of a rebellious conduct would
extend their pernicious influence beyond the existent
generation ; that by transmitting an idolatrous spirit
to their posterity, they necessarily transmit the punish-
ments annexed to idolatry. In the same declaration
they are informed, that mercy would be shown to
thousands of those who loved him and kept his com-
mandments. In this very passage, therefore, the
divine benignity shines conspicuous, both in the threat
and in the promise ; and the disposition to show mer-
cy is represented as greatly exceeding that to chastise ;

348 LETTERS ON

perfectly harmonizing with the many other assurances,
that he is slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy;
that he will not always chide, nor retain his anger for-
ever. Assurances as opposite to the system we are
combating, as the meridian day to the gloom of mid-
night ; as the joys of heaven to the pangs of hell. If
that system be true, the punishment is inflicted upon
souls, that could not be admonished by the threat ;
the visitation is an eternity of pure, unalloyed misery ;
the Deity is quick to revenge, infinitely slow to par-
don ; he doth chide where there is no fault ; and his
anger endureth forever without any just provocation.

If arguments from slight analogies formed upon
admitted facts thus prove inconclusive, those deduced
from vague conjecture ought to prove more unsatis-
factory. In your attempt to convince the skeptic of
the truth of the christian religion, which, according
to your creed, necessarily comprehends the belief of
this doctrine ; you demand of him, whether " all this
weight of evidence is to be overbalanced by this one
difficulty on a subject so confessedly high and myste-
rious ; considering, too, that he must allow we see
but a part — oh, how small a part of the universal
creation of God, and that our faculties are incompe-
tent to judge of the scheme of his infinite wisdom."
Not to observe that the whole mystery on the subject
is, that any man of sense can admit such a doctrine
without evidence, and that every difficulty is at once
removed by rejecting it ; not to repeat what has

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 349

already been advanced to prove the futility of your
reasoning, concerning the incompetency of the human
faculties to judge of religious tenets ; it is very ap-
parent from the above passage, that you feel yourself
necessitated to plunge into the immensity of creation
in search of an argument to justify your hypothesis.
We shall follow you for a moment, attempt to give
shape and consistency^ to vague ideas, couched under
general expressions, and show that your system can
derive no consolation or support from this quarter.
Your observation can only be relevant to the subject
by its suggesting, that the plan of Providence towards
our first parents and their offspring may be intimately
connected with, and exert an important influence
over, some other part of the universal system. But
we can conceive of no other influence than the force
of example ; and the only object of this example
must be to deter other probationary beings from the
imitation of a similar conduct. If this, Sir, be your
meaning, the objections against it are as formidable
as any that have been urged against the doctrine
which gave it existence. How large do you imagine
the number of these parental representatives of future
offsprings, who require such an expense of happiness
in order to keep them in awe ? What ideas shall we
form of their primitive character, if methods like ihese
are requisite to retain them in their allegiance ? Must
they not be too depraved to merit such sacrifices ?
Or dare we for a moment entertain the horrid idea,

350 LETTERS ON

that the divine wisdom and goodness could discover
no better methods in order to teach lessons of obe-
dience to surrounding worlds ? Can cruelty and in-
justice become the basis of the moral government of
the most perfect of beings ? Will he create a mass of
misery among one race of his creatures, that another
may escape it ? It is most true, Sir, that we cannot
fathom the depths of infinite wisdom. " The ways
of the most perfect Being are not as our ways, nor
his thoughts as our thoughts." They are infinitely
better, not infinitely worse. They are " high as the
heavens, above our thoughts and our ways," not
deeper than the abyss below them. If this condem-
nation of the human race for the sin of Adam be itself
cruel and unjust, as you acknowledge yourself some-
times tempted to suspect, the utmost extent of its
uses cannot alter its nature. We are forbidden to do
evil that good may come ; and infinite perfection will
never set us the example. Tyranny itself, in its most
wanton exertions, has never devised or executed a
plan so extravagant ; has never attempted to retain
one class of subjects in obedience, by gibbeting the
innocent offspring of another.

These remarks may possibly convince you, that
your embryo argument aguin proceeds from a very
defective analogy. You now s"ppose that, because
exemplary punishment may be useful among one class
of frail and imperfect creatures, it becomes abso-
lutely requisite to prevent the frailties and imperfec-

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 351

tions of another ; because the guilty are made to
suffer for the good of the community they have in-
jured, the innocent offspring of the guilty may be ex-
posed to sufferings unparalleled, for the good of a
state with which they have no other connexion ; be-
cause pains and imprisonments form too large a por-
tion of our defective governments, they are absolutely
necessary, under the perfect administration of a most
perfect Being, to retain one part of the universal sys-
tem in obedience ; and that he has created a race or
races of beings, whose powers and dispositions have
been exactly adapted to such disingenuous motives.

Thus, my good Sir, do we find, upon taking, not a
partial and superficial, but a full and comprehensive
survey of this doctrine, as stated by its warmest advo-
cates, that it is surrounded by the most formidable
objections ; objections which cannot be confuted nor
evaded. Your system, professing to ley the whole
plan of Providence before us, enables us to judge of
its nature and complexion ; and we may safely pro-
nounce that it is unworthy of the perfections of Deity.
The divine attributes are so implicated in this transac-
tion, that one cannot possibly escape without the im-
peachment of some other. There must have been a
deficiency in foresight, in wisdom, in power, in jus-
tice, or in goodness, or the event, as represented in
your system, could not have happened. If Satan de-
ceived the Ali-wise, then was he still wiser ; if he suc-
ceeded in opposition to the exertions of the Almighty
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to prevent the evil, then was he more powerful ; if
the event took place with his concurrence or conniv-
ance, then was it a conspiracy with the evil one, con-
trary to all the principles of justice, goodness, and
commiseration ; and he, whose nature and character
it is to hate sin and misery, formed a league with
Satan to render them perpetual ! Surely, Sir, these
inductions, flowing so necessarily from your system,
ought to make you tremble. Look at it again, and
say, can a doctrine, which contains such an accumu-
lation of absurdities and impieties, be deemed honour-
able to our Creator ? Ought it to be considered as
the basis of true Christianity ?

If you still remain unconvinced of your errour, re-
specting the doctrine itself, you will, it is hoped, con-
clude from the above train of reasoning, that when
the nominal christian renounces a doctrine you think
so essential, he may also be actuated by a concern
for the honour of God ; that it is not a desire to extol
human nature in a manner flattering to human pride,
which prompts him to deny this original depravity,
with its consequent punishment ; nor a wish to show
himself wise above what is written, which induces
him to reject the supposed covenant as apocryphal,
and contemplate its conditions with horrour. He
argues not for himself, but the character of his God,
and your God, is intimately concerned in the debate ;
that Being whom we are commanded both to love
and to imitate. Since it is enjoined upon us, that we

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 353

" be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect," how
important is it that we entertain the most worthy ideas
of the divine character and conduct, in order that
obedience to his commands may be in unison with the
imitation of his example. But if your system be true,
the imitation of the divine model would naturally
lead us to be incautious, or unjust, or cruel ; impla-
cable in our resentments, and partial in our forgive-
ness. We also should feel ourselves entitled to re-
venge every injury, under the pretext of satisfying
vindictive justice ; for if justice in the abstract neces-
sarily requires the punishment of the offender, neither
can we pardon without committing an offence against
it, by being unjust to ourselves.

We are commanded to " love the Lord our God
with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our
might;" but this devout and ardent affection can only
be founded upon a conviction of his superlative good-
ness. Every sentiment, that has a tendency to check
this conviction, must inevitably damp the ardour of
our affection. Every sentiment, that largely displays
the divine benignity, is calculated to fan the devout
flame. In the doctrine of original sin and its ordain-
ed consequences, most certain it is, that the universal
benevolence of the Deity is not rendered conspicuous ;
much less is it represented in a manner adapted to
warm the generous heart. The only love that can
be excited, consistent with its principles, is the per-
sonal gratitude of the elect, for what they justly term
astonishing and unmerited favour. Out of this small

354 LETTERS ON

circle the Universal Parent must become an object of
terrour. The duty must therefore be confined to
them ; for the non-elect, experiencing no essential
benignity, cannot possibly perform it. They must be
as destitute of motives, as you deem them destitute
of natural powers. There is a selfishness also in the
affection of the elect, which diminishes the lustre of
so excellent a disposition ; for a due regard to that
other command, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself," would disqualify a benevolent mind for the
enjoyment of this exclusive felicity. It would lament
the misery of the damned too deeply to feel satisfac-
tion at the distinguished favour conferred upon itself;
unless, indeed, you admit another extravagance, and
suppose that it will be the office of the same spirit,
which softens the christian's heart in this world, to
harden it in a more exalted state.

How different this contracted, monopolizing temper,
and the scheme which inspires it, from that inspired
by a conviction of the universal benignity of Deity,
entitling us to call upon the whole earth " to rejoice
that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ;" from being
fully assured that "his throne is established in right-
eousness, and that his mercy endureth forever." Sen-
timents like these must impress the wicked in the hour
of reflection ; and they communicate joy unalloyed
to the benevolent christian, as often as his mind yields
itself up to their full impression.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

LETTER VI.

355

The Scheme of Original Depravity not necessary to
account for Moral Imperfection in Man. Argu-
ments against the Doctrine drawn from its perni-
cious Consequences.

Sir,
A person unacquainted with artificial theology, and
ignorant of the extravagances of which it is capable,
would be much surprised when informed, that a
scheme like the one we have been contemplating,
was invented expressly to vindicate the character of
Deity. He would naturally inquire, what imputation
can be supposed worse than the one this vindication
necessarily brings with it ? He will urge that the
apology is totally on the side of Man, and not of his
Maker ; since the depravity, which is hereditary and
inevitable, renders what is termed vice as instinctive,
and consequently as innocent as the brutal propensi-
ties of the most brutal animals ; and he will ask, can
any thing stronger be suggested against the divine
perfections, than to treat these instinctive propensities
as crimes deserving eternal punishment? When you
unfold your principles before him, by asserting that
every thing, which comes immediately out of the hands
of Deity, must be perfect; that it is inconsistent with
the divine attributes to form creatures in a depraved
state, and therefore they must have been rendered
depraved by incidental circumstances ; he will reply,
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356 LETTERS ON

thnt the difference is not so immense between permit-
ting the agency of a wicked spirit to effect this fatal
change, by which his own eternal purpose was ac-
complished, and originally creating man with the pro-
pensities you contemplate and bewail } nor is there
more injustice in punishing mankind for the primitive
depravity with which they were created, than in ren-
dering them liable to eternal damnation for imputed
crimes.

But without wishing to palliate the frailties and im-
perfection of human nature, he will remind you, that
there is a large space between absolute perfection of
character, and radical depravity ; and that a large
diversity of mixed characters may be formed within
that space ; and he will again demand, what proofs
have you that it is inconsistent with the divine per-
fections to create beings capable of this diversity? If
you say that every thing which comes from God must
be perfect, he will require an explanation. He will
ask, Do you mean to preclude the Deity from the
creation of any beings, who are not perfect in know-
ledge, disposition, and felicity ? without which there
must be occasional crimes of ignorance, of depraved
wills, and some share of misery ; if so, you presume
to limit his creative powers to the formation of beings
perfect like himself. If this position be disavowed,
it will necessarily follow, that there must be some
kind and degree of imperfection in the creation of
God. And this being admitted, he will again ask,
How can you prove that the degree of imperfection

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 357

and depravity observable in human nature exceeds
that, which it is within the limits of the divine attri-
butes to admit ? He will further suggest the possi-
bility, that, in the wide empire of the universe, an
infinite diversity of methods may, in the plenitude of
infinite wisdom, be rendered conducive to the same
issue ; the promotion of all possible happiness. He
may suppose it to be the divine plan, in our system,
to form beings, who shall be placed at a great distance
from complete felicity, but with endowments that shall
render felicity attainable ; to create in ignorance, but
to furnish with powers and means of acquiring know-
ledge ; in weakness, both individually and collectively,
but with the capacity of acquiring personal and com-
bined strength ; to implant a principle of self-love,
which, though innocent in its nature, may prove inor-
dinate and pernicious, unless it be under the control
of higher principles, with which our natures are like-
wise endowed ; to inflict sufferings, but to give them
a salutary tendency, so that they may be productive of
greater good than could have been promoted without
them. He will admit, that such a plan may not cor-
respond with our wishes ; and that our impatience to
enjoy happiness will induce us to imagine, that it is not
the best possible ; but you will surely allow, Sir, that
it is infinitely more consonant with our ideas of a wise
and perfect governour,than plunging a whole race into
endless misery at once, without crimes of their own,
without means of reforming their native depravity, or
hopes of escape.

358 LETTERS ON

One singular advantage attends the above hypo-
thesis ; it is not necessary that it should be true, in
order to invalidate yours. If there be no proofs that
it is contrary to Scripture, that it is irrational, or that
it is peculiarly derogatory to the divine perfections, it
has infinitely the advantage. It may be false, and
yet confute your bold assertion, that there is no other
way of explaining the phenomena of human depra-
vity, than the one you have adopted ; it may be false,
and yet afford a more pertinent and more honourable
solution of the difficulty, until the discovery of a bet-
ter shall produce still greater satisfaction to the impa-
tient mind.

If the adoption of this should commit too great a
violence upon prejudices and habits, that have been
long formed, there is another hypothesis which ap-
proaches nearer to your own, and ought to have a de-
cided preference ; and that is the ancient doctrine of
Manes, from which yours is manifestly derived, and
of which it may be justly deemed a corruption. The
Manichean system completely exculpates the Deity
from being the author of evil, and the intentional
cause of misery. The Creator is deprived by it
of no other attribute than that of infinite power,
which is no impeachment of his moral character.
Since his designs and plans may yet be just, wise,
and good, the grand respectability of character still
remains, and the incessant exertions of his power,
to the destruction of misery, which he did not volun-
tarily permit, still demand the universal tribute of

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 359

love and gratitude. Their doctrine further adminis-
ters this consolation ; it admits that the good Being
will finally become triumphant over the malignant
Spirit ; and that order, virtue, and happiness, shall,
at some future period, be diffused through the uni-
verse. Who, Sir, that has it in his choice, would
not prefer reposing his mind upon an errour, which
promises such a desirable issue, rather than suffer it
to be tossed, like the fallen angels of Milton, upon the
waves and surges of eternal misery, to which your
system incessantly directs our thoughts ?

Many other objections might be advanced against
an hypothesis, which you deem so essential to Chris-
tianity ; but if the force of these already urged be not
sufficient to subdue your prejudices, it would be in
vain to expect success from the most numerous
auxiliaries. We might examine the principles upon
which you rest the importance of this doctrine, and
prove them fallacious. We might assert, that to strike
terrour into the human mind, by expatiating upon the
danger of actual transgressions, is much better calcu-
lated to produce a change in minds and morals, than
the method which your system pursues. For true
repentance can only arise from a consciousness of
personal guilt ; and a rational expectation of the terri-
ble judgments of God, can alone be founded on a
conviction that they are righteous, and we deserve
them. It would not be difficult to demonstrate, that
a firm and influential belief of your hypothesis would
extend the most baneful effects over the whole human

360 LETTERS ON

race, in every successive generation. It would bring
forward such a total debasement of character, as to
create mutual detestation, and excite universal suspi-
cion. It would compel every individual, when ac-
cused of the vilest dispositions, and basest principles,
to admit the charge. It would diffuse an universal
gloom, which nothing could, nothing ought to dissi-
pate. The benevolent mind would perpetually suffer
the torments of the damned, by reflecting upon the
miseries that probably await the majority of its most
intimate and endearing connexions. Every principle
of humanity would forbid the most virtuous commerce
of the sexes ; and celibacy, as the only means of ex-
terminating a race born under the wrath and curse of
its Creator, would be the sublimest of duties. You
might also be admonished, that, if the danger of specu-
lative errours proceeds from their pernicious tendency,
an errour so peculiarly dishonourable to Deity, which
has a tendency to embitter every enjoyment in life,
to throw one class of persons into a sinful despond-
ency, and tempt another to reject all religion, must de-
servedly be placed among the most dangerous ; and
nothing can prove a future excuse for your creed,
but that sincerity against which you have entered so
solemn a protest ; or afford such consolation to the
mind, as the benignity which your creed insults.

Haying thus reasoned with you to the utmost ex-
tent of thr subject, we might justly extol our courtesy
in condescending to argue with persons, whose by-
pothesis deprives them of the right. For what evi-

TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 361

dence can those produce, that they are qualified to
argue upon the subject, whose leading principle is,
that the fall of Adam has impaired our intellects, and
blinded our judgments, to such a degree, that we are
not able in any one instance to think or to act right ?
How can they, who maintain the depravity of human
reason, convince us that every thing they urge, in de-
fence of their system, does not proceed from that
very perversion of intellect, which they confess to
have seized the whole human race ?

Justice could not be done to these hints, without
increasing our trespass upon your time and patience ;
and therefore they are submitted to the amplification
of your leisure moments.

It is hoped, Sir, that you will perceive, from the
pains which have been taken in these letters, to state
the objections to the doctrine of original sin, in all
their force, that the writer sincerely aims at your con-
viction. He would be happy to relieve you from that
embarrassment of mind under which you manifestly
labour. He assures you that it is a pleasant thing
for faith to walk hand and hand with reason ; and he
sincerely thinks, that it would not only be an honour,
but an advantage to rational Christianity, were you to
become its advocate. Eloquence, like yours, founded
upon true principles, might produce the most bene-
ficial consequences.

These Letters are addressed to you through the
medium of the public, that they may, in some degree,
serve as an antidote to the pernicious effects of your

362 LETTERS ON TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

Treatise, upon minds already prejudiced against Chris-
tianity,— whose prejudices must inevitably be con-
firmed, by the apprehension that your doctrines are
essential to genuine Christianity. It is also ardently
desired to soften that uncharitable asperity, which
your work is unhappily calculated to increase among
a numerous and respectable body of christians, by
indicating that your principles are not rejected with-
out mature consideration. In order to make the ex-
periment, whether it be not possible for reason to gain
the ascendency over the influence of station, and
popularity of character, the writer has concealed his
name, that his arguments may be appreciated accord-
ing to their real validity ; and that their influence may
not be diminished by prejudice, or receive adventi-
tious force from predilection. If he has, in some in-
stances, expressed himself in strong language, he has
taken care that such language should be authorized
by stronger arguments ; and whenever he has mani-
fested indignation, he has felt that the doctrine de-
serves it, which was with him an additional proof of
its being a pernicious errour ; for nothing, which
comes from God, can possibly excite that emotion.

With the respect due to your distinguished merits,
I have the honour to subscribe myself,
Sir, your fellow Christian,

and obedient servant,

A LAYMAN.

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